Sun increases portfolio to match demand

Sydney, Australia – 20 August 2008 – Sun Microsystems has more than doubled its marketshare in the x86 server market in Australia according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific Enterprise Server Tracker, Q1 2008, May 2008. Sun’s revenue market share in the Australia x86 server market has grown to 4.9% in Q1 2008, up from 2.3% in Q1 2007. Sun is now ranked number four in terms of revenue in the Australia x86 server market, up from fifth position in Q1 2007.

The results come just 18 months after Sun launched x86 servers on the Intel platform.

These new IDC statistics follow Sun’s growth in the overall server market in Australia. According to IDC’s Quarterly Enterprise Server Tracker Q1 2008, Sun was the only vendor among the top five vendors in the overall server segment in Australia in CY 2007 that recorded revenue market share increase compared to 2006.

“We have seen tremendous demand in the x86 server market. Sun has been able to innovate on the Intel platform with four-way systems that are cooler, use less power and take up less space than competitor offerings. Add this to the work we are doing with AMD and Acer and Sun has become a force to be reckoned with in the volume market,” said Gary Kelly, Systems Practice Manager, Sun Microsystems ANZ.

“Customers want an affordable, enterprise-class alternative for entry-level business computing. With Sun, they can choose from AMD, Intel and SPARC processor-based technology and support for Windows, Linux, VMWare and the Solaris 10 operating system which has led to Sun doubling its marketshare.”

According to IDC, rack-optimized and blade server form factors accounted for more than two thirds of the total x86 server shipments in the first quarter of 2008. In Q1 2008, Sun market share increased in the x86 blade and x86 rack-optimized segments in Australia compared to Q1 2007.

“With the size, power consumption and efficiency of blade servers it is no surprise they account for so much of the overall x86 server market. All companies are faced with space, power and cooling issues in the data centre and blades offer a good solution at an attractive price point,” said Kelly.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer(TM)" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.