HP and Sun Microsystems in Pact for Solaris on HP ProLiant Servers

HP and Sun Microsystems have announced a multi-year partnership agreement that entitles HP to distribute and provide software technical support for Sun’s Solaris 10 Operating System on the HP ProLiant server and blade system platforms.

 

The new original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and support agreement enables the companies to work together to expand demand for both Solaris and OpenSolaris on both HP ProLiant servers and server blades into new markets, officials said.

 

Under the terms of the new agreement, Sun becomes a strategic HP ProLiant OS distribution partner and Solaris becomes one of the key operating environments for HP ProLiant platform.

 

The agreement, according to the companies, provides a single point of purchase, contact and accountability for Solaris on HP ProLiant. This helps them improve overall customer experience and reduce operational costs.

 

HP and Sun Microsystems (News - Alert) also plan to collaborate on integration of Solaris 10 and HP Insight software on HP ProLiant servers to deliver usability and management enhancements.

 

According to Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager, Blade System and Insight Software, HP, the combination of Solaris and HP ProLiant delivers superior performance, scalability and virtualization capabilities on x86 servers.

 

Potter also mentioned that Solaris on HP ProLiant solution helps their customers who require an expanded HP ProLiant operating environment support to address their diverse application requirements.

 

“The endorsement of Solaris on HP ProLiant dramatically expands the available market for Solaris on x86 servers, building on the largest installed-base of any commercial UNIX and Linux distribution,” said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems, Sun Microsystems.

 

“The growing demand and ecosystem around Solaris helps to further propel its adoption, along with breakthrough technologies like ZFS and D Trace, and outstanding operational economics and market-leading support for thousands of ISVs and applications,” Fowler added.

 

Officials said Solaris on HP ProLiant has already gained several customer installations. With the new agreement, HP ProLiant customers who prefer Solaris on x86 now have access to a complete infrastructure solution for the data center from a single source, making the purchase process easier and more cost-effective.

 

Customers will also benefit from HP Technology Services and the software updates through Sun Microsystems’ automated Connected Services offerings. HP said it is also increasing its participation in the OpenSolaris community, collaborating with other users on feature development and interoperability.