Sun Launches Online Sale to Celebrate 25 Years of Innovation

In celebration of its 25-year anniversary, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) is offering exciting deals on its most popular and innovative products to help customers quickly and securely build, develop and deploy network computing solutions. For two weeks starting today, limited quantities of select award-winning products will be available at discounts of up to 65 percent as an anniversary gift to customers in the U.S. and U.K. Sale offerings include UltraSPARC and industry-standard Sun Fire servers, Sun StorageTek systems, services and software.


"Over the past 25 years, thousands of customers have built their businesses on Sun because of our exemplary value and investment protection," said Marsha Cavanagh, vice president of Lifecycle Marketing at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "On our 25th anniversary, we're further lowering the barriers to entry by featuring great promotional prices on some of our hottest products, offering them online where many of our customers prefer to purchase. In addition to rewarding our loyal customers, we want to introduce the next generation of companies to the innovation that has made Sun a leader in network computing."

Sun technologies—offering customers excellent value as well as processor platform and Operating System (OS) choice—will be available at unprecedented promotional prices online at http://www.sun.com/25thsale. The promotion enables both new and existing customers to quickly and easily engage with Sun's most powerful technologies, including the Solaris OS. Sale highlights include:

Systems: 50 percent off the Sun Fire x4500, the industry's first data server; up to 50 percent off the Sun Fire x4600, the world's first 16-way modular x64 server; up to 60 percent off Sun Fire CoolThreads systems, the most energy-efficient, high-performance systems on the market; and up to 50 percent off high-performance x64/x86 and SPARC workstations.
Storage: Up to 65 percent off leading NAS systems such as the Sun StorageTek 5320 and 5220 NAS Appliances.
Services: Sun offers lower-cost training and high-quality services, including Solaris Subscriptions priced less than commercial Linux; 40 percent off a service plan with the SunSpectrum Instant Upgrade program; and 25 percent off most Solaris support subscriptions.
Software: Sun's Solaris OS is available free at anytime and is supported on the broadest set of x86 and UltraSPARC platforms, making it the strategic OS of choice. Customers can easily develop applications with free Sun development tools such as Sun Studio and NetBeans software.
"Sun is always looking for creative ways to reach new and existing customers, through programs such as Try and Buy and Sun Startup Essentials," said Cavanagh. "Our anniversary sale is intended to attract new customers, encourage migration off competing platforms, and expand our footprint into broader markets."

Sun also launched a Web site (http://www.sun.com/25years) honoring the company's quarter-century of innovation, with videos from CEO Jonathan Schwartz and Chairman and Co-founder Scott McNealy; historical timelines; photos; a virtual scrapbook of memories from Sun's 25 years; and more.

Founded in 1982 and led throughout its history by the guiding principle "The Network is the Computer," Sun has pioneered an abundance of technologies that have helped customers grow their businesses on the network: from Java and Solaris to ultra-thin clients; from network storage to open source software. Now Sun is poised for another 25 years of innovation, delivering new open, eco responsible network computing technologies to help empower the people that will push the boundaries of participation on the network.

During its 25 years in business, Sun has built a massive network of customers, partners, developers, employees, alumni and other advocates. Sun now operates in more than 100 countries around the world and supports an ecosystem of more than 20,000 channel partners, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), System Integrators (SIs) and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). More than 5 million developers code in Java, supporting more than 4 billion personal computers, mobile phones and other devices worldwide that run Java applications.