Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems on Wednesday announced a deal that will let HP distribute and provide software support for Sun’s Solaris 10 operating system on its ProLiant server and blade system platforms.
Under terms of the deal, Sun becomes a strategic HP ProLiant OS distribution partner, and Solaris is now included in the lineup of key operating environments for the ProLiant platform.
HP and Sun said providing a single point of purchase, contact and accountability for Solaris on HP ProLiant improves the overall customer experience. The companies are also working to reduce operating costs and deliver usability and management enhancements by collaborating on the integration of Solaris 10 and HP Insight software on HP ProLiant servers.
Accommodating Customers
Mark Potter, senior vice president and general manager for HP’s BladeSystem and Insight Software group, said the company is responding to customers who have asked for expanded HP ProLiant operating environment support to address their diverse application requirements.
“The combination of Solaris and HP ProLiant delivers superior performance, scalability and virtualization capabilities on x86 servers,” Potter said. “Backed by industry-leading HP Technology Services, the agreement gives our joint customers complete confidence to grow their businesses while also controlling costs.”
As Sun sees it, HP’s Solaris endorsement dramatically expands the available market for Solaris on x86 servers. Sun Solaris boasts the largest installed base of any commercial UNIX distribution. And, according to IDC, HP ProLiant led the x86 server market at 38.2 percent factory revenue share in last year’s fourth quarter.
“The growing demand and ecosystem around Solaris helps to further propel its adoption, along with breakthrough technologies like ZFS and DTrace, and outstanding operational economics and market-leading support for thousands of ISVs and applications,” said John Fowler, executive vice president of systems for Sun.
Another Arrow in HP’s Quiver
“This deal makes HP the fifth and final major vendor to…