Sun Delivers Grid Utility Service

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Sun Microsystems officially launched its grid
utility
computing offering, a $1-per-hour-per-CPU option that turned heads when
it
was announced last year.

Rolled out at its Network Computing ’05 (NC05Q1) event in Santa Clara, Calif., the grid utility costs $1 per CPU, per hour, said Ed Valdez, vice
president of integrated solutions at Sun. A similar arrangement for
Sun’s
storage utility is $1 per gigabyte per month.

Valdez said Sun’s utility offering represents an industry shift to move
away
from building custom data centers to standardized systems and
eventually to
a utility model, in which customers pay only for the computing they need,
when
they need it.

Rather than buying a bunch of gear to throw at IT problems, customers
can
opt to pay for the resources as managed services, with Sun hosting
infrastructure such as Sun Fire servers and the Java Enterprise System
on
various sites all over the world.

Analysts spoke favorably about the computing model, but also
said proof of the service’s appeal would be strengthened by the company’s ability to
execute by landing contracts.

Sun officials declined to name specific customers using the service, noting they wished to remain out of the limelight. However, the company did say
clients
in Texas, Virginia, New Jersey and Scotland have powered up as much as
10,000 CPUs of computing resources, with more on the way in Toronto,
London
and Asia this year.

On the software subscription side, Sun is offering Enterprise System
Suites
for mid-market customers interested in identity management, application
platform services, system availability, Web infrastructure and
communications. Subscriptions cost $50 per employee, per year. Current
Java
Enterprise System customers may upgrade free.

Java Enterprise System 3 is currently available by subscription for
$140 per
employee, per year.

For global services, Valdez said Sun has designated six practices for
its
new Client Solutions Organization. Sun is assigning 10,000 professional
services workers to address identity management, enterprise Web
services,
desktop and mobility, data center, manageability services and storage
and
data management.

Two new offerings include the Sun Infrastructure Solution for Secure
Network
Access Platform to improve the way mobile employees work and
collaborate
from remote offices. Also, the Sun VoIP Application Services Solution
is now
available as part of Sun’s Secure Network Access Platform offering,
along
with Lucent’s voice network technology.

In related news, Sun has made some headway in its Preventive Services
offering, launched
last June to help data centers avoid and/or correct performance
problems.

Sun has opened up the program to partners in an attempt to help the
safeguarding services gain more exposure, said Trisha Bright, director
of
product marketing at Sun.

Bright said Sun is also updating the suite with new system-level
services.
This includes the Sun Update Connection, which makes managing software
updates easier and the newest Net Connect 3.2 services, a set of online
system management services.

Net Connect now features new remote servicing utilities that allows Sun
to
tap into customers’ systems to perform remote remediation and system
diagnostics. The services is now enabled to meet Sarbanes-Oxley
encryption
requirements, too.