HP, Sun forge tighter OEM bond for Solaris on ProLiant servers 25 February, 2009 By Liam Lahey

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Under the terms of the OEM and support agreement, Sun becomes a strategic HP ProLiant OS distribution partner and Solaris is now elevated to the lineup of key operating environments for the HP ProLiant platform. The new deal sets a course for the companies to work together to expand demand for both Solaris and OpenSolaris on both HP ProLiant servers and server blades into new markets.

By providing a single point of purchase, contact and accountability for Solaris on HP ProLiant, HP and Sun said they are improving overall customer experience. To further reduce operational costs, the companies would collaborate on integration of Solaris 10 and HP Insight software on HP ProLiant servers to deliver usability and management enhancements.

"We're responding to our customers who have asked for expanded HP ProLiant operating environment support to address their diverse application requirements," said Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, BladeSystem and Insight Software, HP. "The combination of Solaris and HP ProLiant delivers superior performance, scalability and virtualization capabilities on x86 servers. Backed by industry-leading HP Technology Services, the agreement gives our joint customers complete confidence to grow their businesses while also controlling costs.

"Customers are now able to standardize on a single provider for their complete datacenter infrastructure. This reduces their cost, complexity and resource requirements associated with managing multiple vendors and it will give customers complete confidence that HP stands behind the entire solution and that HP is responsible for any issues that arise."

"This agreement comes on the heels of other similar OEM agreements Sun has made with Dell, IBM, Fujitsu-Siemens, and Intel, culminating in the top five worldwide server vendors now licensing Solaris," said John Fowler, executive vice president of Systems at Sun. "This will dramatically expand the available market for Solaris on x86 servers . . . ultimately it makes this a classic competition between Solaris, Windows, and Linux."

With HP ProLiant leading the x86 server market at 38.2 percent factory revenue share in 4Q08 and the strong market support for Solaris and its' more than 4,300 unique x86 applications, the joint Solaris on HP ProLiant solution has already contributed to a significant number of customer installations.

"This agreement with Sun does not pertain to our Integrity line of servers," Potter said. "This agreement also benefits our channel partners. Our partners will be able to source the complete Solaris on ProLiant solution from HP. Many HP and Sun channel partners provide integration and customization services that our joint customers value."

Additionally, customers benefit from the confidence that HP, the largest technology provider in the world, is driving issue resolution for the joint solution through HP Technology Services and Sun is providing software updates through its automated Connected Services offerings.

As a result of this agreement, HP also will increase its participation in the OpenSolaris community, collaborating with other users on feature development and interoperability.

"HP engineers will join Intel and AMD in participating directly in the OpenSolaris community," Fowler remarked. "We're tremendously excited about having one of the worlds' largest and most technically sophisticated technology companies contributing directly to OpenSolaris and promoting it to all of our developers."

Gary Budzinski, senior vice president of Technical Services, HP, said within the next few weeks, customers choosing Solaris on HP ProLiant would have the full support of HP's Technical Services.

"We'll respond to the Level 1 and Level 2 support needs on a global basis," he said. "HP Technology Services will offer a full portfolio of services on Solaris 10 starting with subscriptions hard-bundled with software support and technical support. Later, customers can receive hardware and software environment services."

For channel partners, Fowler said Sun would invest in go-to-market programs, training events and road shows.

"This will be a unique partnership for customers," he said.

Added Potter when asked about the deal's impacts on its relationships with other partners such as Red Hat, "We're going to continue to have close partnerships with other vendors; we've always been about providing choice. There's no impact to our other relationships . . . we will actively promote it (Solaris) and support it with a complete services offering."

Meanwhile, research firm IDC Corp.'s Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker recently reported revenue in the global server market declined 14 percent year-over-year to $13.5 billion (US) in the fourth quarter of 2008. Worldwide server unit shipments fell 12 percent in 4Q08 when compared with the year-ago period.

HP maintained its no. 2 spot behind IBM with 29 percent market share for the quarter as its revenue declined 10.1 percent, while Sun's (Java) revenue fell by 14 percent and it is ranked fourth behind Dell with a 9.3 percent market share, IDC said.