Sun Plans Partner Services For New Servers

As Sun Microsystems prepares to ship three new x64 servers, its channel group is putting together services options for partners, said Bill Cate, Sun's director of U.S. Partner Programs.

Sun on Tuesday is slated to unveil an eight-socket server, a four-socket storage server and a four-socket blade server. The latter product marks Sun's re-entry into blade servers. Company executives said the new server offerings are key because they will propel Sun's x86 Opteron-based servers out of the two-socket territory where most of the market plays.

In turn, one of the channel group's biggest priorities this year is to create a services package to go along with the new servers, according to Cate.

"There is some superior technology in these products that will definitely help sell them," he said. "But resellers make a lot more margin on service and consulting. So that's what my team will focus on this year with those products."

In an interview with CRN last month, Cate said Sun plans to roll out managed services to the channel later this year. But now he said Sun will be ready with its managed services around October.

Plans call for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun to start small with the services and build them up over time, Cate added. "What partners are looking for from us is a much more tightly aligned go-to-market strategy around managed services," he said.

At the same time, Sun will offer more service solutions, including cluster implementation and application readiness, that partners can resell or become authorized to provide, Cate said. Sun currently offers some services through the channel, such as information life-cycle management (ILM). Sun, too, will extend its 60-day try-and-buy program to cover the new server products, he said.