Sun, VMware Partner

LAS VEGAS -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced the company will add VMware Virtual Desktop Manager and VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) to its line up of fully supported desktop virtualization solutions Sun offers to customers. As part of an expanded relationship between Sun and VMware, the new offerings from Sun bring more choice to Sun Ray(TM) thin client customers who now have the flexibility to select either the Sun Virtual Desktop Connector, a component of Sun VDI Software, or VMware Virtual Desktop Manager as their preferred connection broker for virtual desktop deployments. Sun will make VMware VDI and VMware Virtual Desktop Manager, along with support services for the products, available to customers via the Sun price list later this month. More information on the Sun Ray family of virtual display clients and software can be found at www.sun.com/sunray.

In addition to offering VMware VDI and VMware Virtual Desktop Manager, Sun Ray virtual display clients are now VMware Ready Certified for VMware VDI. The certification signifies that Sun Ray thin clients have passed VMware's testing criteria for interoperability and consistent quality performance when deployed in conjunction with VMware VDI and Virtual Desktop Manager. This is made possible through the new Sun Ray(TM) Connector for VMware Virtual Desktop Manager, an add-on component of Sun Ray(TM) Software, that provides tight integration and allows a highly-secure connection between Sun Ray thin clients and VMware Virtual Desktop Manager. With this joint solution, Sun Ray users can access and display virtual desktops based on Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

Enabling choice for our desktop virtualization customers is a paramount goal for Sun. Through our relationship with VMware, we're able to better deliver to customers a broad range of virtual desktop technologies that can be deployed to meet their specific VDI needs,” said Bob Gianni, senior director of desktop systems engineering at Sun. “Sun's innovative and industry-proven Sun Ray technology combined with VMware's popular, leading-edge Virtual Desktop Manager and VDI products offer a powerful choice for customers seeking to take advantage of the cost-savings, efficiency, and eco benefits of a thin client-based virtual desktop deployment.”

In a separate release:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today released new customer adoption numbers that show a significant up tick in customer adoption rates for the various technologies with the OpenSolaris(TM) communities. Hundreds of new Sun enterprise, Web 2.0 and other customers have joined the 150,000+ strong OpenSolaris community, leveraging Solaris(TM) ZFS and other open source software combined with Sun's industry standard hardware and world-class service and support to save money and break free from the chains of closed, proprietary software. Join the OpenSolaris community by visiting www.opensolaris.org.

From telecommunications, financial services and healthcare to high-performance computing and the Web tier, adoption of OpenSolaris technologies spans a wide range of vertical markets. Sun customers Reliant Security, OmniTI, Joyent, Digitar, and others are realizing even greater cost savings in combining this open source, production ready platform with Sun technologies like chip multi-threading (CMT) on industry standard Sun Fire(TM) x64 systems, end-to-end Open Storage solutions and Sun's service and support team.

“The innovative features of OpenSolaris -- such as ZFS, DTrace and its unique distribution model -- along with the speed of deployment and execution it allows, have struck a cord with customers,” said Tim Cramer, senior director of OpenSolaris engineering, Sun Microsystems Inc. “The increased cost savings, flexibility and scale our customers are seeing through the use of OpenSolaris and its communities validates Sun's decades-long commitment to the open source model. We offer customers lower total cost of ownership and increased return on investment through the combination of OpenSolaris and Sun's industry leading hardware, software infrastructure and services.”

Sun Microsystems Inc.