Sun makes foray into Mena's x86 blade server market

Dubai: Sun Microsystems, US-based operator, has made a foray into the regional blade server market with the launch of Sun Blade 6000, first Intel Xeon-based processor. The new platform is expected to accelerate Sun's regional market share as it enters the x86 blade market.

The company has already sold 70 blade servers to about 10 clients worth $1 million (Dh3.67 million) in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) in the last four weeks.

"The market at present is dominated by HP and IBM, but by 2010 Sun hopes to become a world leader in blade market despite entering the market this year. We hope to become number three this year," Craig Vintcent, Sun Microsystems practice manager, Mena, said.

He said the demand is being led by education this year, oil and gas, financial services and the telecoms sectors. We are addressing a market we did not necessarily focus on in the past and its ideal for the small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The company is an advocate of open technology, believing non-proprietary platforms promote collaboration between users.

"We are number one in Solaris, Sparc, Unix and Java but not in x86 market. We are placed around tenth in the x86 market," Basil Ayass, Sun's x64 Product Manager for Sun Microsystems, said.

He said last year, the x86 market grew 112 per cent in Mena and 70 per cent worldwide. Sun has doubled its growth in the region last year. It shows that the region is growing faster than the market and is an important market.

The fastest growing markets for Sun in the region are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, Kuwait and Egypt.

He says HP blades are 53 per cent more expensive and IBM blades are 57 per cent more expensive than the Sun blades.

New platform offers a choice of blades powered by the UltraSparc T1, Intel Xeon processors or AMD Opteron processors. It can run on Solaris, Windows, Linux and VMware applications.

He added that the Texas Advanced Computing Centre (TACC), a research facility at the University of Texas, in Austin, is now building the world's largest "supercomputer" with Sun Blade 6000 blade server.

Components and features of 6000 series

• Each blade costs about $16,594.
• Sun Blade 10 RU chassis supports up to 10 blades per chassis, in addition to up to 320 cores, 2.5 terabytes of memory and five terabytes usable input/output throughput per rack.
• Sun Blade T6300 server uses one-socket blade powered by an UltraSparc T1 processor with CoolThreads technology.
• Sun Blade X6250 server uses two-socket blade powered by Quad-Core Intel Xeon processor 5300 series.
• Sun Blade X6220 server uses two-socket blade powered by second-generation AMD Opteron processors.