Sun To Tie Services To Infrastructure Wares

The new services offerings are the Sun Install Check for Volume Systems, which helps deliver Sun's forthcoming N1 network management system to customers; the Sun Software Support Service Program, which gives customers choice in obtaining support for Sun software; the Quick Start Service for Network Identity, which demonstrates Sun's network identity products and solutions; and the High-Performance eLearning Program, an educational offering for organizations.

The new strategy,called the Intellectual Property Life Cycle,integrates Sun's services with its infrastructure products to create solutions for solving and preventing problems within enterprises, said Pat Sueltz, executive vice president of Sun Services.

The software and services initially will be tied in with Sun midrange and rack-mount servers based on its UltraSPARC processor technology.

"Sun is mobilizing its collective intellectual property and working with its iForce partners to create pre-emptive, best-in-class solutions that offer customers choice and control," Sueltz said in a statement.

"I think, overall, the concept of promoting a methodology behind the whole customer life cycle, and Sun's concept of sharing intellectual property to do that, makes sense," said John Olynick, president of BASIS, an Emeryville, Calif.-based solution provider and Sun partner.

Olynick said he believes there will be three important aspects of this strategy for Sun partners.

"Sun can't scale fast enough %85 they are cutting people," Olynick said, referring to recent layoffs. "The second piece, whether Sun likes to admit it or not, is [that the world of end users is not a world where everybody says, 'I only buy Sun,' or 'I don't buy Sun at all.' What it allows our company to do is support a customer who has a 'Sun-plus' environment,Sun plus Dell, or Sun plus IBM.

"The third thing is, they didn't just throw this out to the channel," Olynick said. Focusing instead on partners that have made an investment in the business "was a smart move on Sun's behalf," he said.

Overall, the strategy "better positions them against the EDSes and the [IBM Global Services of the world," he said.

"On paper, it's been presented to me as a well-thought-out, customer-friendly, channel-friendly set of offerings," Olynick said.

The key, he added, will be the long-term execution of the strategy.

A Sun spokesman said further details including pricing and terms and conditions were not immediately available.

The strategy also aims to capitalize on intellectual property already present in a customer's system, which will lower customer costs, Sueltz said.

To get the strategy rolling, Sun is giving away its Sun Install Check for Volume Systems as a free download for its SunFire 280R, V480 and V880 systems over its sunsolve.sun.com Web site.