CLOUD

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today introduced the Sun(TM) OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter, providing Sun servers with up to 2.4 Gbps of high-performance networking and high network resiliency. The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter provides multi-gigabit speed connectivity for next-generation networking, enabling Sun Fire (TM) V880 servers, Sun Fire 4800 servers and Sun Fire 6800 servers to take full advantage of Packet Over Sonet technology. A Sun innovation, the new PCI network interface adapter allows network engineers to connect Sun servers directly onto an OC48 Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) network, improving efficiency and network reliability. The adapter provides high-bandwidth network connections at OC48 speeds up to 2.4 Gbps. By supporting Point-to-Point (PPP) and Spatial Reuse Protocol (SRP), the Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter delivers network resiliency in the RPR network through self-healing failover and restoration after link failure -- an absolute requirement in both the migration and ongoing support of mission-critical network and backbone applications. The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter is designed for compatibility with Cisco's Dynamic Packet Transport (DPT)/RPR technology. ``Sun's innovations continue to redefine the speed, reliability and quality of networking,'' said Anant Agrawal, vice president and general manager of Networking and Security Products at Sun Microsystems. ``Sun is the first systems vendor to offer Fast Ethernet and Trunking/Link Aggregation products, proving that our dedication to next-generation networking is firmly grounded in our product development efforts. Our high performance computing customers -- from Internet Service Providers to government organizations and media companies -- are seeking more network bandwidth for access to servers such as application or database servers. Low latency is a requirement in their system-to-system interconnections. The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter gives Sun servers greater functionality, improved performance and increased reliability to meet the demands of mission-critical networked applications.'' Lower TCO Through Server Efficiency, Management Ease and Open Standards With high-performance Sun servers directly on the RPR network, customers are capable of offering high-bandwidth services, such as Voice over IP and streaming media, at affordable costs. In addition, by providing plug & play operations the new Sun Packet Over Sonet adapter makes network configuration in the RPR network much simpler. The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter supports OC48, RPR (the SRP implementation) and PPP, enabling interoperability and implementation flexibility between Sun servers and other third party products, while providing investment protection of existing infrastructure, applications and expertise. The Packet Over Sonet technology combines the bandwidth-efficient and server-rich capabilities of IP routing with the bandwidth-rich, self-healing capabilities of fiber rings to deliver significant cost and functionality advantages over existing connectivity solutions. By allowing Sun servers to take full advantage of the 2.4 Gbps OC48 speed, the Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter enables companies to deploy a wealth of revenue-producing and cost-saving applications including LAN/WAN network backbones. Companies reaching performance limitations as a result of existing FDDI rings can easily migrate to OC48 RPR networks to gain increased performance and reliability for mission-critical applications at a lower cost. Both ISPs and data service providers need to scale Points of Presence (PoP) and optimize intraPoP connectivity in a cost-effective way to handle increased IP traffic and services expansion in their web hosting and caching applications. Many enterprises have delayed deployment of new media and entertainment applications due to their massive data throughput demands and high costs. The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter and high-bandwidth Packet Over Sonet technology deliver the performance needed for applications like streaming media, video on demand, and Voice over IP without breaking IT budgets. ``With this announcement Sun and Cisco are enabling a broader set of applications for DPT/RPR technology,'' said Roland Acra, group vice president, Internet Routing at Cisco Systems. ``Together, we bring unique perspectives to multi-gigabit networking for customers who require high-bandwidth connectivity for mission critical applications such as voice and video. The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter card, along with the Cisco ONS 15194 IP Transport Concentrator also announced today offers a powerful solution that will provide improved performance, efficiency and network reliability for server farm and data center applications.'' Sun ONE Advances End-to-End Networking Reliability The introduction of Sun's OC48 adapter complements the Sun(TM) Open Net Environment (Sun ONE), Sun's vision, architecture, platform, and expertise for the development and delivery of services on demand. By increasing the performance and reliability of such services, the Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter enables companies to easily handle the expected exponential growth in data traffic while improving the performance of traditional IT operations, such as clustering and remote storage back-ups. Pricing and Availability The Sun OC48 Packet Over Sonet Adapter with PPP support lists for $12,000 and with SRP support lists for $24,250. The new server connectivity solution is expected to be available on the Sun Fire V880 server in April, 2002, followed by the Sun Fire 4800 server and Sun Fire 6800 server in June, 2002, through Sun and Sun's existing sales channels. Visit www.sun.com for more information.