Sun To Grant Channel Exclusive Rights To Sell Orion To Small Customers

Sun, Santa Clara, Calif., also will set final pricing for Project Orion, which bundles its Java application server, portal, directory, Java tools and other software with the Solaris operating system, at a flat fee of $100 per customer for a year subscription, said solution providers familiar with Sun's plans.

The pricing includes license, maintenance and training fees, as well as a professional services allowance that varies in size based on the number of employees supported, sources said.

In addition, the vendor will use its "Java" brand in the full name of the software/OS bundle, which also will be revealed at Sun Network, sources said.

A Sun spokeswoman declined to comment on Orion pricing, branding or distribution, saying only that Sun will unveil full details at Sun Network.

As first reported by CRN, Sun will debut the first version of Project Orion at its Sun Network technology conference, which kicks off in San Francisco Sept. 16. The suite is scheduled to ship later this fall.

Solution providers said the first version will include Sun Cluster Server, Message Queue Enterprise Edition, Instant Messaging, Calendar Server, Messaging Server, Portal Server, Portal Remote Access Server, Identity Server, Web Server, the Standard and Platform Editions of the Sun ONE Application Server, and Directory Server.

Orion is crucial to Sun's plans to reshape itself from a hardware vendor to a software and solutions company, solution providers said.

Sun has been making this transition for the past two years as its Unix-based hardware revenue has been undercut by the popularity of Linux running on commodity servers from competitors IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell.