Sun Microsystems Announces Alliance with VMware to Deliver Components of the Virtual Data Center

Sun to Offer VMware Virtual Infrastructure Server Products; Sun Fire Servers and Sun StorEdge Systems Gain VMware ESX Server Certification; VMware to Support the Solaris 10 Operating System in Future Server and Desktop Products

SAN FRANCISCO - LINUXWORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO, Aug. 10 — Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced an alliance designed to deliver VMware's full line of server virtualization capabilities on Sun's Sun Fire (TM) x64 (x86, 64-bit) servers and the Sun StorEdge(TM) 6920 system, further supporting deployment of the virtual data center. In addition, Sun and VMware also signed a technology agreement to provide support for the Solaris(TM) 10 Operating System (OS) as a guest OS on future VMware server and desktop products.

As a result of these agreements, Sun will resell VMware ESX Server, VMware GSX Server and VMware Workstation products, providing customers purchasing Sun Fire x64 servers or workstations from Sun, such as the single- and dual-core Sun Fire V20z and Sun Fire V40z, with the option of adding the virtualization software to their systems. VMware ESX Server is virtual infrastructure software for partitioning, consolidating and managing systems in mission- critical environments. With VMware ESX Server on Sun Fire x64 servers and support for the Solaris OS, IT organizations can extend their options to easily provision new services running on the Solaris 10 OS, Windows and standard Linux distribution operating systems on the same piece of hardware, thus helping to increase utilization of the servers.

VMware customers will be able to take advantage of key features of Solaris 10, including Solaris Dynamic Tracing (Dtrace) and Solaris Containers on any architecture. With technology advances such as enhancements to the network stack and special optimizations for multithreaded x64/x86 architectures, Solaris 10 is powering enterprise applications at record speeds on Sun Fire systems. In addition, the Sun StorEdge 6920 system, Sun's flagship mid-tier storage system, complements VMware ESX Server by enabling customers to implement cost-effective consolidation initiatives and robust business continuity capabilities.

"Virtualization opens the network and liberates the customer to implement server consolidation, respond faster with virtual infrastructure and dramatically improve and lower the cost of disaster recovery," said Stephen Borcich, vice president of Partner Marketing for Sun Microsystems, Inc. "VMware virtual infrastructure on Sun Fire servers further extends the options for customers to consolidate the servers and storage in their data centers with Sun's high performance Sun Fire x64 and StorEdge 6920 products. Furthermore, with the addition of Solaris support, customers will be able to run Solaris 10 in a VMware virtual machine."

Enterprises in many industries typically run one application service on one server, and often utilize only five to 15 percent of their Linux or Windows server hardware capability. With virtual infrastructure, IT organizations can provision new services, change the amount of resources dedicated to a software service easily and consolidate disparate systems, such as branch office and datacenter mission-critical applications and infrastructures, onto fewer highly scalable, reliable enterprise-class servers from the Sun Fire x64 product line, powered by the AMD Opteron(TM) processor.

"Today an increasing number of our 10,000 enterprise customers are standardizing on VMware virtual infrastructure for their industry standard servers to take advantage of the indisputable productivity, flexibility and cost saving benefits of virtualization technology," said Brian Byun, Vice President of Strategic Alliances for VMware. "Our new relationship with Sun Microsystems, a proven and established data center vendor, will expand customers' options for creating their virtualized data centers. Enterprises that are evaluating new approaches to managing IT resources should consider the combination of Sun Fire x64 servers running Solaris 10 and VMware ESX Server."

VMware ESX server is available immediately on Sun's Sun Fire x64 servers directly from Sun and other qualified resellers.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision — "The Network Is The Computer"(TM) — guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at sun.com.

About VMware, Inc.

VMware, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC), is the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems. The world's largest companies use VMware solutions to simplify their IT, fully leverage their existing computing investments and respond faster to changing business demands. VMware is based in Palo Alto, California. For more information, visit www.vmware.com or call 650-475-5000.

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VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or various jurisdictions. All other trademarks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, Solaris, Sun Fire, Solaris, StorEdge and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. AMD, Opteron, the AMD logo, the AMD Opteron logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices.