Q3 FY07 Customer Momentum, New Customers Speak Out

Altair Engineering

Altair Engineering - a Michigan-headquartered, global PLM and grid technology developer - selected the Sun Fire x4500, an integrated x64 server and storage system, in order to improve Altair's software development productivity and speed delivery to its customers. Price/performance was a key consideration in Altair's choice of the "Thumper" system, which delivers high data throughput and storage density at about half the cost of traditional solutions. Altair also engaged Sun Services for deployment.

Betfair

Based on past successes with Sun's eco-responsible and cost-saving technology innovations, online betting exchange Betfair chose to continue investing in Sun technologies in the third quarter. Betfair has deployed a combination of Sun StorageTek technologies as well as x64 and UltraSPARC processor-based Sun Fire servers running the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS) to power its explosive growth. Sun technologies are at the cornerstone of the Betfair's "Green Computing" and virtualization initiatives. For example, CoolThreads technology on its UltraSPARC-based servers, coupled with Solaris 10, reduced Betfair's energy requirements to support 60 databases from 16 kilowatts to three kilowatts. Meanwhile, x64 servers delivered 50% energy savings over equivalent alternative servers, and server and storage virtualization has led to power savings of 84% and 60%, respectively. In addition to minimizing operating costs, Sun technologies have minimized downtime and allowed the company to maintain fast response times in a time of significant service and market expansion.

Clemson University

The Clemson University Computational Center for Mobility Systems (CU-CCMS) closed a major agreement with Sun as an IT infrastructure partner to help CU-CCMS build a state-of-the-art system to conduct computational studies in fluid dynamics. The High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure, dedicated for this world-class, comprehensive computational center, includes Sun Fire servers, Sun/STK storage solutions as well as Sun software and Services. In addition to the price/performance of the Sun systems, Clemson selected Sun as its partner due to the creativity and commitment of the Sun team compared to rival vendors. The CU-CCMS project has already utilized a 100,000 CPU-hours grant on the Sun Grid in order to complete a "blind" technology demonstration type simulations for GM Research. The Clemson and Sun collaboration effectively showcased the unique laminar-to-turbulent transition and type-2 unsteady models developed at Clemson University. These models are considered to be essential building-blocks that are needed in the consistently accurate simulation of vehicle aerodynamics.

Elecktrofilm

Elektrofilm, a premier digital media services provider to the entertainment industry, has selected a complete Sun solution comprised of Sun StorageTek, Sun Fire servers and Sun Services to build a high speed, open standards based framework for digital content delivery. Selected over top competitors, Sun was chosen as the best fit due its Storage Archive Manager/Quick File System (SAM-QFS) software, enabling easy movement of multiple petabytes of data across all tiers. The implementation of the Sun solution has provided Elektrofilm with a flexible, scalable and high-performance infrastructure that allows the company to move content much more cost effectively and in turn to become market leader in the replacement of traditional film archive services.

Las Vegas Valley Water District

The Las Vegas Valley Water District selected a combination of Sun StorageTek technologies as well as x64 and UltraSPARC processor-based Sun Fire servers, running the Solaris 10 OS, to replicate multiple copies of its database and maintain data integration while making it available to several departments within the district simultaneously. With the help of Sun Services, the organization implemented a superb server environment to support its growing infrastructure. The Sun storage solution has already exceeded expectations, and the Las Vegas Valley Water District anticipates a 40-50 percent increase in server price performance over its existing system from a competing vendor.

LG Micron

LG Micron of South Korea, a global leader in shadow mask technology for television and computer displays, successfully deployed a six-node high availability cluster comprised of high-performance Sun UltraSPARC servers. The Sun cluster solution provides 24X7 business continuity for LG Micron's mission-critical applications such as enterprise resource planning and Web portal. As a result of the deployment, LG Micron is now able to ensure non-stop operation for business-critical services and manage unexpected disruptions. In addition, LG Micron has decreased its Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by maximizing resource utilization and reducing manpower for its IT infrastructure.

National Health Service (NHS)

The National Health Service (NHS) in England, one of the world's largest employers globally, awarded BT the contract to deliver the national data Spine, which carries summary information about healthcare and forms the core of the NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS), as part of the NHS National Programme for Information Technology - believed to be the world's largest civilian IT project. Sun supports BT as a major partner to deliver this system. To date BT and Sun have deployed over 1000 x64 and UltraSPARC processor-based Sun Fire servers and the Sun Java Enterprise System (Java ES) as the foundation for the NHS CRS infrastructure, which will provide an integrated care records service for the country's 50 million citizens. The entire NHS CRS system is written in Java utilising Java ES components, including components of the Java System Identity Management Suite which will provide a national approach to authentication, security and confidentiality. With a dedicated team of 100. Sun professionals, Sun has been able to support BT in delivering a better NHS service through its responsibility for the day-to-day running of all Sun servers and storage as part of a managed services solution.

Medavie Blue Cross

Medavie Blue Cross selected Sun Microsystems for the software infrastructure needs of its 1,400 employees and numerous customers by deploying the subscription-based Sun Java Enterprise System, Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite and Sun Java Communications Suite. By deploying a common, integrated application infrastructure throughout the organization, Medavie Blue Cross expects to develop and deliver new applications and services to its customers more quickly, thereby lowering its total cost of ownership while improving customer service and revenue generation potential. An insurance service provider to both individuals and corporations, Medavie Blue Cross's new Sun infrastructure will enable the company to build an open source infrastructure with a pricing model that offers flexibility and predictability in addition to improved security and compliance. Medavie Blue Cross chose Sun over competitive offers from Oracle and IBM for the unrivaled predictability of its subscription model, its commitment to open standards and Sun's strong presence within the health care market.

Smart Communications

Smart Communications, the leading wireless service provider in the Philippines, selected a variety of Sun x64 servers and a Sun data-warehousing appliance, as well as Sun Services, to improve performance and TCO for its IT infrastructure. Smart Communications is working with Sun to build a provisioning platform for next-generation services, which runs the Solaris 10 OS for its database. With the combination of Sun technologies, Smart Communications has dramatically increased query processing for its data warehouse and lowered costs, and derived better price performance for its high revenue transactions.

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)

Our first Purchase Order in Q3 for Project Blackbox, the world's first virtualized data storage center, was for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), which plans to use Project Blackbox to rapidly expand its HPC and data center capabilities for its physics and astrophysics research.

Tokyo Stock Exchange

The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), the third largest stock exchange in the world, deployed additional Sun StorageTek technologies and UltraSPARC processor-based Sun Fire servers, running on the Solaris 10 OS, to complement its existing Sun server and storage infrastructure. TSE chose Sun over competitive offerings targeting cost reductions associated with standardizing on a single platform as well as the lower management costs.

Universidad de Granada/Junta de Andalucía

Seeking to implement an HPC infrastructure, the Junta de Andalucía selected a complete Sun solution, including more than 250 x64 and UltraSPARC Sun Fire servers, Sun StorageTek solutions, the Solaris OS, as well as Sun N1 software and Sun Services programs for the main supercomputer located in the Universidad de Granada. Chosen over competitors for its competitive pricing and impressive performance, the Sun implemented grid infrastructure helps to create the first large-scale HPC deployment in Spain by Sun, giving the mentioned supercomputer unrivalled computing power and a spot on the world's Top 500 list of supercomputers.

Université du Québec à Montréal

Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) selected UltraSPARC T1-based Sun servers running the Solaris 10 OS to support essential IT operations including human resources, payroll, finance and student services. The university chose Sun technology for its price/performance -- twice the performance at half the cost of competitors, including hardware incumbent HP -- as well as Sun's strong reputation in the higher education sector. UQAM also engaged Sun Services to assist with the system deployment.

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo, Norway's oldest and largest institution of higher education, was seeking an HPC infrastructure to support academic research across a wide variety of disciplines. Selected over competitors for its price, performance and savings in power consumption, the University of Oslo will deploy x64 Sun Fire servers with help from Sun Services, providing a super-computing resource for the university's 30,000 students and 4,600 employees. In addition, Sun's Customer Ready Program will handle systems assembly and delivery in racks.