SYSTEMS

Start-Ups Test Drive the Sun Grid Utility, Next-Generation Internet Infrastructure, Open Solaris and Broad Selection of Free and Open Source Software -- Sun Microsystems today brought together leading Silicon Valley venture capitalists and their next-generation investments for a discussion on the technologies and business models enabling massive online participation and the resulting wealth creation. Sun Microsystems President and Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz hosted participants from venture firms Diamondhead Ventures, Hummer Winblad, Sierra Ventures and others. Entrepreneurs and start-ups in attendance included Reactivity among others. "There's a simple fact of history: bubbles precede build outs," said Schwartz. "And we're now in the midst of the largest network expansion the world has ever seen. Silicon Valley is once again at the head of the field. The days of prohibitive technology infrastructure costs are over -- with Sun's free and open source software, massively efficient infrastructure, and the pay-as-you-go Sun Grid computing utility now available, the barriers to entry for entrepreneurs have never been lower." Eco-Responsible Sun Fire Servers With CoolThreads Technology Offered Free for 60 Days Event participants had the opportunity to enroll in the industry's largest Try & Buy program, enabling them to test out the world's most advanced Internet servers -- the new Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads Technology running the highly threaded UltraSPARC T1 processor running the open source the Solaris 10 operating system -- free of charge for 60 days. For more information, please go to: its Web site. Sun Grid Brings Supercomputing to the Network, For $1/CPU-Hour The companies got a look at Sun's brand new public computing utility, the Sun Grid. Through a simple-to-use portal, U.S. users -- including developers, scientists, and researchers -- have easy, secure, affordable and flexible access to Sun Grid compute utility, the world's first compute utility available at the low price of $1/CPU-hour. Sun is also offered a special promotion to event participants -- "A Day of Sun Grid" -- in which they can receive 24 CPU-hours if they register for a Sun Grid account. With low barriers to entry and exit, easy access, and no long-term contracts required, users in diverse industries -- including finance, oil and gas, education and life sciences -- are now able to run complex computational tasks, technical applications, and develop applications on Sun Grid. Users in the U.S. can access the pilot release of Sun Grid at its Web site. The Participation Age Sun believes the world is entering a new era -- a Participation Age -- where dramatically lowered barriers to entry, plummeting device prices and near-universal connectivity are driving a new round of network participation. From blogs to Java technology, SMS messages to Web services, participants are forming communities to drive change, create new businesses, new social services and new discoveries. This growth in the network economy is fueled by sharing and collaboration among communities interconnected by technology and driven by purpose. Sun also believes that sharing and collaboration in the Participation Age will stimulate innovation and help all participants from across the world grow and prosper.