Sun, 4 integrators' goal: under-$10K Unix servers

Electronic News,  Sept 22, 1997  by Cynthia Bournellis

Tags: marketing, server, Sun Microsystems Inc., Unix, Unix server

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Mountain View, Calif.--Rather than cave in to the Wintel hegemony, Sun Microsystems instead will partner with four major PC systems integrators to deliver Unix servers for less than $10,000.

Sun Microsystems is one of two non-Windows suppliers left. Apple Computer is the other. Unix system competitor Silicon Graphics officially embraced Wintel this month, announcing its move to make a new line of low-end Windows NT workstations using Intel hardware beginning next year (EN, Sept. 15).

Sun's answer to a Windows NT box will be upcoming low-end to midrange systems based on the UltraSparc AX motherboard from Sun Microelectronics, a division of Sun Microsystems. The PC systems integrators with whom Sun has partnered, MicroAge, Nevcor Technologies, PC Wholesaler and Western Micro, have both Intel and Unix experience. As part of the plan, Sun Microelectronics will supply systems integrators with the PCI-based UltraSparc board that will use either a 167MHz or a 250MHz UltraSparc microprocessor module for a high-performance Internet platform. Sun will also provide a suite of Sun-branded Internet software: WebServer http server, Solstice Internet Mail Server, SunScreen encryption software and SunScreen EFS firewall.

Systems integrators will assemble and market custom systems using standard PC components to value-added resellers and distributors. The systems integrators will either brand the computers with their own logo or let their resellers private label the systems. The end-user target markets are small to medium-sized businesses.

With this model, Sun is taking its own technology and fitting it into the PC channel at a competitive price, said Mike Gallagher, group marketing manager at Sun Microelectronics. "If we don't do this, those folks (customers) will make the transition to Windows NT." A number of analysts and the systems integrators agreed that the new model is a smart move that will keep Sun's customer base intact, particularly with increased competition from Compaq Computer and Hewlett-Packard. "Wintel is coming, and you have to defend your market," said Mark Kirstein, an analyst with In-Stat.

The new strategy will put Sun's partners into a "nice" niche, said Fred Brockway, business development manager at Nevcor Technologies. "We are finding that people are open to the fact that this is not a proprietary box, and that it is priced the same as NT." While the list of PC components suppliers is limited, it does contain roughly 200 products that are currently compatible with the UltraSparc AX motherboard. Vendors include Quantum, Seagate Technology and Western Digital with disk drives up to 6-gigabyte densities. There are two SCSI card suppliers qualified: Symbios Logic and Intraserver. And Sun has approved about six CD-ROM suppliers. For network interface cards, Mr. Gallagher said Sun may talk to Intel and 3Com, but has approved a product from SBE Communications for the time being.

Not all PC components are compatible with the Sun motherboard. For instance, low-end monitors from Princeton Network Systems, a New Jersey-based value-added reseller for Nevcor, don't meet certain configurations of the motherboard, according to Mike Almasy, president of Princeton. Instead, Princeton will offer its high-end monitors as an option. Overall, Mr. Almasy said he's received positive responses from his customers who currently have evaluation units. The cost of hardware is running about 50 percent than that of a comparable Sun system. He said he expects to see substantial orders within 60 days, but added that it's too soon to tell if customers will make a mass exodus from NT to the Sun platform.

While each systems integrator will offer up custom models, some will provide base configurations. A standard low-end model from MicroAge, for instance, will include 3.2GB of storage, 64 megabytes of RAM, a 16-speed CD-ROM drive and a 2MB graphics card all packaged in a mid-tower chassis, said Tom Gammon, VP of OEM solutions at MicroAge.

Meanwhile, Western Micro, for whom this strategy is its Sun Eyes Under-$10K Unix Servers continued from page 50 first Solaris/Sparc initiative, will utilize all three of its manufacturing facilities in California and Chicago to initially bring forth a family of servers for electronic commerce applications. "We hope to have a commerce-in-a-box approach," said Wayne Monk, VP of marketing at Western Micro. For small to medium-sized businesses, Western will sell a system bundled with IBM's Lotus Domino Web-enabled Notes software for around $15,000. Within that same price range will be a server for medium-sized to large companies that will come bundled with IBM's Net.Commerce software, which is used by catalog company L.L. Bean, for instance, to process large amounts of on-line transactions. Western Micro has deployed 60 sales people alone to sell this product. Both configurations will carry Western's e-Merchant brand.

To compete on price with Wintel machines, Western also plans to offer a Enterprise 450-like server based on the UltraSparc AX single-processor board for under $10,000. The traditional Enterprise 450 family is sold by Sun Microsystems and scales to four processors. The single-processor version will come unbundled with the Solaris operating system. "The resellers can add the applications they wish to," said Mr. Monk.