Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun Store Enhances User Experience While Reducing Maintenance and Power Requirements with Sun Fire T2000 ServersA singular vision—"The Network Is The Computer"—guides Sun Microsystems in the development of technologies that power the world’s most important markets. Sun’s philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Customer Challenges
SolutionSun Microsystems overhauled its online Sun Store by deploying new e-commerce software and moving the entire site to Sun Fire T2000 servers offering dramatic improvements in throughput and energy efficiency. Business Results
Story DetailsThe Web is a way of life at Sun Microsystems, an innovator in network computing and the Internet with its own online sales channel. Customers rely on the Sun Store to order products online, view product discounts and order status, send and save quotes, compile lists of frequently ordered items, and download software. In 2006, Sun launched an initiative to expand the store’s services, enhance the user experience, and process online orders faster, more accurately and more efficiently. One of Sun’s chief objectives was to expand the site to support more business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce with value-added resellers and other partners.
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We looked for the servers that would provide the best combination of efficiency, rack space conservation and performance, and the T2000 came out on top.
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— Will Snow, Senior Director, Web Platform Engineering, Sun Microsystems
Toward those goals, Sun replaced the store’s e-commerce applications with more robust and technically powerful Enfinity software from Intershop. To maximize the value of the new software, Sun needed to select the right Sun server and operating system platform to deliver the maximum throughput and the lowest TCO. Sun Fire T2000 servers proved to be the best solution. The servers are based on Sun’s UltraSPARC T1 processor with CoolThreads technology, the highest-throughput and most eco-responsible processor available. Running the Solaris 10 Operating System, the servers were binary-compatible with the latest version of Intershop software. In addition, the recent SWaP benchmarks confirmed that the Sun Fire T2000 systems provide the best price-performance for Web services and related database transactions of any servers from any vendor. At the Sun Store, Sun replaced 9 older servers with 5 Sun Fire T2000 systems, each with 32 gigabytes of memory and 8-core T1 processors. Three front-end servers host Web services and the Intershop applications. The two additional servers run an Oracle 10g database containing the Sun Store catalog of hardware and software products. The smaller server inventory reduces the administration and maintenance burden on the Sun Store staff, along with TCO. A reduction in power consumption of more than one half is also expected to significantly reduce operating costs. The Sun Fire T2000 servers have ample memory and throughout to support the steady growth of the Sun Store. The unmatched performance of the Sun Fire T2000 servers has allowed Sun to move forward with its Sun Store expansion. Navigation and the overall user experience on the site have improved dramatically, drawing positive feedback from customers. New B2B capabilities will allow resellers to use the store’s infrastructure to catalog their Sun offerings. Automation of the order management process has also improved the speed and accuracy of the store’s services while helping Sun operate more efficiently. Now Sun, like its customers, can enjoy the full power of its own innovation. |
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