Sun Ships New Release of Solaris ISP Server Optimized for Internet Service Providers

Business Wire, March 9, 1999

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 9, 1999--

Solaris ISP Server 2.0 Delivers Industry-Leading

SPECweb Performance Numbers

Reinforcing its commitment to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) community, Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the availability of Solaris ISP Server 2.0 SPARC(TM) and Intel platform edition software designed to provide ISPs with a platform to reduce operational costs, improve performance, address new business opportunities and develop additional revenue streams in an increasingly competitive industry.

With industry-leading SPECweb performance numbers of 10,212 operations per second as well as the power to host up to 10,000 virtual websites on one server, Solaris ISP Server 2.0 is one of the fastest and most cost-effective service provider platforms available on the market today.

Designed specifically for medium-to-large Internet, telco and cable service providers, Solaris ISP Server offers integrated services such as Sun Internet FTP Server for high-performance file transfers, Sun Internet News Server which facilitates access to USENET newsgroups, and Sun WebServer(TM) that allows service providers to leverage server-side Java(TM) application interfaces in a Web hosting environment. For ISPs that want to set up Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) and assure bandwidth, Solaris(TM) Bandwidth Manager 1.5 is bundled at no extra charge.

"Sun's strong history as an initial solution provider to the ISP community has given us a clear understanding of the evolving business model, technology integration challenges and competitive pressures shaping the industry," said Stuart Wells, vice president, Network Software Products at Sun Microsystems. "Solaris ISP Server is specifically designed to help providers respond to these challenges by delivering better performance to users, lowering administration requirements and allowing for aggressive growth of the business."

Wells continued, "Treating the growth of the ISP industry as the latest 'trend', several technology vendors have just now starting adding features to their platforms. At Sun, the ISP community has been and continues to be a primary focus. Real service provider functionality that meets strict telco-quality requirements is 'baked-in' at the core of Sun solutions."

"Our business depends on reliable and scaleable hosting of high-bandwidth customers," said Ellen Hancock, president and CEO, Exodus Communications. "The Solaris operating environment provides a dependable and available platform that enables our customers to provide a high level of service. Solaris ISP Server reinforces Sun's commitment to scalability, availability, management, and support for network service providers."

About Solaris ISP Server 2.0 Software

Solaris ISP Server 2.0 is optimized to provide the highest quality, secure Internet access to customers and subscribers and significantly reduce setup and administration costs. This release continues to raise the bar in scalability with support for 10,000 virtual websites, 5,000 concurrent FTP connections and over 2,000 concurrent news connections. This cost savings is easily illustrated when you compare these scalability numbers to the traditional 100-200 concurrent connections that competing products can support. This means that a single Solaris server can do the work of several other types of servers.

On the performance front, Siemens recently put Solaris ISP Server 2.0 to the test according to the SPECweb96 procedure using a Primergy 870-40 Intel processer-based machine and achieved the fastest-ever results for a four CPU System: 10,212 operations per second. Further information about these SPECweb test results may be found at http://www.spec.org/osg/web96/results/res99q1/.> Other highlights of Solaris ISP Server 2.0 software include: -0-

--   A security-hardened operating environment and integrated
     standards-based directory server (Sun Directory Services) that
     allows only specified administrators to access the root
     directory, keeping networks safe from internal and external
     threats,

--   Sun Host Configuration that reduces setup costs by saving and
     replicating one server's configuration automatically on other
     servers being deployed,

--   Easy-to-use GUI administration tools or support for command lines
     and scripts that give service providers a choice of
     administration environments,

--   Network Cache Accelerator that caches the most frequently visited
     static sites in order to improve performance and response times
     experienced by users,

--   Sun Internet Services Monitor that keeps an eye on how ISP
     services (Web, news, mail, LDAP) perform from an end user's
     perspective to ensure quality of service, and;

--   Solaris Bandwidth Manager 1.5 software that controls the
     bandwidth assigned to particular applications, users, and
     departments that share the same outgoing intranet or Internet
     link. This is critical technology for ISPs that want to provide
     SLAs and guaranteed bandwidth.
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