Alliance Overview

The IBM WebSphere and Sun Alliance is based around open standards and furthering choice for customers. This strategic alliance focuses on mutual customers who have chosen the Sun Platform to deploy the WebSphere branded products. The two partners in this alliance work closely in open standards specifications and the alignment of engineering resources, which result in low-cost, high performance choices for customers.

IBM WebSphere and Sun provide the foundations for Java Web Services, Service Oriented Architectures and Enterprise Application Integration. The Solaris Operating System is a reliable, secure, scalable and extendable platform to deploy WebSphere branded products across different processor types - SPARC (T1 and UltraSPARC) and x64 (Opteron).

Why Choose WebSphere on Sun?

Open Standards - Both IBM WebSphere and Sun are committed to Open Standards and innovation. This furthers more choices and quicker adoption of innovative solutions. Standards, especially those which are open, ensure longevity of solutions based on them.

Price/Performance - Sun's new Sun Fire Servers with CoolThreads technology deliver breakthrough performance with dramatic space and power efficiency. These servers, with the Solaris 10 Operating System are the industry's fastest and most space and energy efficient systems.They're ideal for all web-tier and app-tier environments. Sun x64 servers are the fastest, energy-efficient and reliable servers. These servers can run virtually any operating system, including Solaris OS, Linux, Windows or VMware.

Secure and Reliable - Solaris is one of the most secure Operating Systems in the industry.Solaris has a proven track record for reliability. WebSphere on Sun gives you the security and reliability essential for mission-critical applications to grow your business.

Scalable - You need the right partners to grow with your growing business. Sun Solaris platform is a proven leader for scalable systems. WebSphere branded products have shown remarkable scalability on Sun Solaris platforms.

Interoperability - Many infrastructure and application vendors have qualified their products on Sun Solaris. This large ecosystem will help you design the best solutions for your business.

How Does Sun and IBM WebSphere Provide These Benefits?

Sun Solaris is a Tier 1 platform for WebSphere branded products with many customers who have chosen to deploy WebSphere products on the Sun Solaris platform. With a large number of mutual customers to satisfy, Sun and IBM WebSphere work very closely through key infrastructure programs such as the following:

• Account Team Alignment: Technical, Marketing and Sales teams are aligned to help mutual customers, without any finger pointing. Regular account reviews between the respective teams help to better the service and offerings for mutual customers.


• Joint Technical Work: The IBM WebSphere Development and Performance Teams work closely with Sun Development and Performance teams. This joint effort helps in optimizing and tuning WebSphere branded products on the Sun Solaris platform. Product roadmaps and technology are shared under Confidential Agreements which are in place between IBM and Sun. This enables the timely release of optimized WebSphere products on the Sun Solaris platform.


• System Integrators and Partners: The vibrant Sun and IBM WebSphere partnership has fostered an ecosystem of System Integrators and Partners who help customers to architect and implement a variety of solutions based on WebSphere branded products deployed on the Sun Solaris platform.