Sun Unveils New Promotions For Software, Volume Systems

Plans call for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor to launch the new programs at its annual partner confab, the Sun iForce Partner Summit, which is being held in San Diego this week.

Sun is offering special pricing to qualified VARs for its Java Enterprise System suite of infrastructure software and Java Desktop System, its Linux-based desktop. Under the new program, partners can purchase JES--usually priced at $100 per employee, per year--for $50 per employee, per year. Similarly, JDS is available to partners for $25 per desktop per year, instead of its usual price of $100 per desktop per year.

Reseller partners with less than 5,000 employees qualify for the special JES and JDS pricing, Sun said.

"Our resellers and partners, like our customers, need simplified, predictable and affordable licensing for their infrastructure software," John Loiacono, Sun's executive vice president for software, said in a statement. Sun aims to help solution providers streamline their internal business systems so they can focus their resources on driving revenue, he said.

In addition to the Java software promotion, Sun also said Monday that it's running a special offer for Solaris implementations on x86-based servers. Solution providers can offer Solaris for a yearly subscription of $50,000 a year for a package of 100 Solaris licenses. Subscriptions also are offered in packages of 500 and 2,000 units, with either standard or premium support from Sun.

The promotion includes a Solaris OS Right To Use license, patches, updates, an upgrade to Solaris 10 and Sun software support services. Sun VARs can offering the special pricing for Solaris on a mix of x86 servers from Sun and third-party vendors.

According to Sun, the pricing for the Solaris promotion, which runs April 27 to Dec. 31, 2004, is 70 percent less than the list price of comparable Linux offerings and up to 80 percent off the price of comparable Microsoft Windows Server 2003 offerings.

For example, the subscription price for a 2,000-unit Solaris on x86 package with standard support has a U.S. list price of $800,000. A comparable package of 2,000 subscriptions for Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES with standard support, priced at $799 per system, would cost nearly $1.6 million and be prohibited for use with four-CPU systems, according to Sun. One year of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with support would cost about $4.4 million, which is five times more expensive than pricing offered in Sun's new promotion, the company said.

Sun said it expects about 500 partners to attend the iForce Summit this week. The vendor also plans to unveil a consolidated channel program, as well as a new sales model designed to give VARs better local coverage in U.S. regions with the addition of 25 percent more channel sales staff by July 1 (see story).