McNealy, Sun Unveil Revamped iForce Solution Center

Sun Microsystems

The facility has several labs dedicated to showcasing solutions for vertical markets such as retail, health-care and finance that Sun and iForce partners have developed using Sun hardware and software.

"This is what solution selling is all about," McNealy said.

McNealy said the center shows how Sun's strategy to provide solutions is partner-centric and thereby different than that of competitor IBM Global Services.

That is, Sun goes to market with partners to provide solutions using a variety of technologies rather than providing only its own products and then offering to build services around them, McNealy said.

"It's different than what IBM Global Services does--we call that 'inbred,' " McNealy said. "This is about best-of-breed solutions."

Sun has about 25,000 partners worldwide, including solution providers, ISVs, OEM partners and service providers, said Cheryl Kelly, director of global iForce marketing at Sun.

The new center in Building 15 of Sun's Menlo Park campus now houses much of the equipment that once was in the iForce center in Building 14 of the same campus, a Sun spokesman said.

The newly launched center is more streamlined than that facility, which had separate and often cramped offices in which Sun and its partners would work on solutions and do demos for customers, the spokesman said. However, Building 14 still houses facilities where Sun ISV partners such as Oracle and SAP work with Sun on joint solutions to demo for customers, he said.

Currently, there are 75 iForce partner centers worldwide--50 that are owned and run by partners with Sun's help and 25 centers similar to the Menlo Park facility, which Sun owns and operates, said Nancy Fuller, group manager for Sun iForce marketing.