APPLICATIONS

BARCELONA, Spain - Sun Microsystems, Inc. unveiled its new Grid Computing Solutions Program to hundreds of iForce(sm) partners at the company's EMEA iForce Volume Partners Conference in Barcelona. Building on its success in grid computing and its vision of an open grid architecture, Sun's new program delivers expanded Sun services and training, provides industry-specific solutions for grid computing, and offers enhanced certification, sales and deployment partner programs from which iForce partners can build complete grid computing solutions for their customers. The program rolls out immediately across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Sun has been at the forefront of grid computing development for more than two years, beginning with the acquisition of Gridware in July 2000. Since then, more than 6,000 grids have been deployed worldwide - over 2,500 in EMEA alone - based on Sun ONE Grid Engine software. The new vertically-focused models provide a deployment and services structure that helps customers implement grid solutions, while reducing the cost, risk and complexity associated with these implementations. Sun's Grid Computing Solutions Program aims to help customers with the adoption and deployment of all levels of grids - from cluster and enterprise grids up to global grid solutions - providing customers with improved access and utilization of compute resources and increased productivity. The program provides customers with: 1. Expert services - Highly skilled Sun Services consultants and iForce partners can provide customers with assessment services, architecture development, grid implementation, and ongoing data center site management services. To date, more than 100 iForce partner companies have gained extensive experience in grid computing through Sun training and certification programs. 2. Industry-Specific Solution Guides - drawing on the experience of over 6,000 grids deployed using Sun ONE Grid Engine software provides proven grid architectures on which to model customer grid solutions. 3. Grid Testing Centers - Sun and its iForce partners will enable customers to leverage a network of Authorized iForce Solution Centers to build proof-of-concept solutions that demonstrate first-hand the huge benefits associated with grid computing. "Sun's extensive experience in grid computing gives us the ability to offer customers tried and tested solutions. The benefits to our customers include quicker deployment, lower costs and increased resource utilization," said Fred Kohout, director of solutions and technical markets for Volume Systems Products, Sun Microsystems. "Current customers with Sun-based computing grids, including Ford Motor Company, Motorola and Ribotargets, have experienced tremendous gains in resource utilization and production. Customers are looking to Sun and its partners to provide broad, replicable solutions that can be delivered today." Mike Thompson, Principal Analyst, Butler Group, commented: "Sun Microsystems' implementations of grid computing demonstrate a good level of understanding of the benefits available to the end-user. The Sun Grid Computing Solutions Program will help to drive the benefits of grid computing to a wider customer base and facilitate faster implementations and return on investment." Sun is providing iForce partners with industry-specific Solution Guides to accelerate the development of iForce solutions for three core vertical markets - Life Sciences, Financial Services and Electronic Design Automation (EDA). These new Solution Guides are available today, with new solutions planned for 2003. More information about Sun's Grid Computing Solutions Program or Sun ONE Grid Engine software, can be found at http://sun.com/grid . Sun's history in Grid computing Sun has been instrumental in making Grid computing mainstream, driving adoption by making Sun Grid Engine software for the Solaris Operating Environment and Linux platforms available as free downloads. In July 2001, Sun was the first systems vendor to place key Grid computing technology into open source via the Grid Engine Project at www.Gridengine.sunsource.net. Sun has also worked with the Global Grid Forum to help establish critical standards for the industry, including The Distributed Resource Management Application API standard (DRMAA). In addition, Sun is partnering with academic organizations to further grid standards and technology, including Cambridge-Cranfield HPC Facility (UK), Aachen University of Technology (Germany) and CASPUR Grid led by Universita' La Sapienza (Italy). Sun Microsystems established itself as a leading architect for Grid computing in July 2000 with the acquisition of GRIDware, quickly followed by the launch of Sun's resource management software, Sun Grid Engine. Today, Sun's complete stack of Grid computing technologies and its vision for the evolutionary development of Grids-from cluster to enterprise to global Grids-and its commitment to open, standards-based technologies are fundamental to its strategy to promote and grow Grid computing worldwide.