March 13, 2007 - Today, Sun Microsystems announces the launch of Network.com, an online service that allows developers and ISVs to develop and publish their applications, enabling communities of scientists and academics in life sciences, education, engineering, and other fields to accelerate innovation and complete research projects quickly and less expensively.

Introducing the Application Catalog

The Network.com Application Catalog gives users immediate online access to popular ISV and open source applications through an easy-to-use Web portal for just $1/CPU-hour--with no contractual obligation. Users can upload and run their own applications and create a personal library of favorites or take advantage of the pre-installed and configured applications giving them instant productivity. The portal gives them everything they need to conduct analysis and complete complex computational tasks to help speed scientific discovery and shorten the time to market for new products. They simply select the application, upload their data, and get results fast.

The Application Catalog already boasts more than 20 high performance computing (HPC) applications that users in life sciences, manufacturing, and research can access instantly for a minimal cost, including SimBioSys' eHiTS, Mathspec's Rational Numbers, BLAST, FASTA, Glimmer, T-Coffee, GROMACS, fastDNAml, ElmerSolver, Impact, OFELI, Blender, and CalculiX, to name a few. Sun is working with its ISV partners and open source communities to add to the growing list of HPC applications.

Network.com enables anyone to publish applications to the Application Catalog and take advantage of the powerful Solaris 10 OS-based grid platform. Users can publish their own applications to a private library and access them whenever they want; they can also share their applications with others while retaining their data securely in their private space.

Big Benefits for ISVs

The launch of Network.com is particularly timely for ISVs seeking entry into the emerging on-demand software space as a way to grow their businesses and offset growing competition and rising costs. Network.com now takes the hassle and the cost of data center build-out, operation, and management out of the equation and lets ISVs concentrate on building and distributing great software. With the Application Catalog, participating ISVs can expand their existing customer base with pay-as-you-go, on-demand offerings, plus they are empowered to reach into new markets.

"This is really a first-of-its-kind forum for ISVs with HPC applications to establish a presence in the on-demand software market, to learn about the marketplace, and to transform and grow their businesses," says Kris Thorleifsson, group marketing manager for Network.com. "What we're delivering here is access to infrastructure, as well as a catalog--an online storefront if you will--that gives ISVs and developers a presence on Network.com to promote their applications."

Sun is also offering a Readiness Initiative for ISVs that provides a wide array of resources for developing and marketing innovative applications for Network.com. The program offers developer toolkits, downloads of Sun evaluation software, training, white papers, documentation, access to experts at Sun and, through Sun's HPC Solution Center, evaluation of pay-per-use models. "We make this an easy, low-cost way for them to get up and running in the grid environment," Thorleifsson says. "What we are enabling via Network.com is breaking the barriers for adoption by providing access to applications in a new business model."

A key Network.com innovation is a new Digital Entitlement Token system that enables ISVs to quickly and securely serve up applications. "The Digital Entitlement Token system greatly simplifies the licensing of on-demand software," says Rohit Valia, head of marketing for Network.com. "This is going to enable a new digital economy that goes beyond downloads and frees ISVs and developers to innovate."

The Network.com Application Catalog is already paying dividends for Sun's ISV partners. "The pay-per-use utility model for software enables SimBioSys to expand its addressable market," says Aniko Simon, vice president of business development at SimBioSys Inc., the Toronto-based developer of the eHiTS drug design tool. "The initial market reaction from early adopters of eHiTS on the Sun Grid has been very strong. Providing eHiTS in the Application Catalog on Network.com will allow us to service customers that did not previously have access to the IT infrastructure needed to use eHiTS for computationally demanding projects. Through Network.com, customers have immediate access to our application, significantly speeding their time to results."

On-Demand HPC Applications

Open source developer communities looking to expand the reach of their HPC projects will benefit from the Application Catalog. "This really promotes the wider use of open source software. The open source developers typically don't have access to a super-computing resource. Now any open source community with an HPC application can make that application available on Network.com," says Valia. "We are actively working with over 50 open source communities right now and we are very honored to be participating in these projects."

The Application Catalog and associated developer tools makes Sun the first to deliver true on-demand HPC applications over the network, according to HPC marketing manager Tony Warner in Sun's Systems Group. "The move puts Sun and the Solaris 10 OS at the forefront of network delivered HPC," says Warner. "Customers can submit HPC tasks and have them run instantly with no need to configure, architect, or manage their HPC infrastructure. This innovative solution delivers production-ready HPC computing."

New Markets, New Opportunities

Network.com serves not only enterprises looking to avoid additional IT capital expenses and to off-load computing work, but also smaller start-ups leveraging the pay-per-use model as an alternative to buying IT assets. "We now see HPC moving down into green-field areas where it had never been considered before," says Bjorn Andersson, Sun's director of HPC and integrated systems. "For everyone involved, the ISVs, the open-source communities, and the end-users, this opens up new markets and new opportunities."

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