SUNTONE CERTIFIED ad in NY Times today -- A New Standard
Have you seen the SUNTONE CERTIFIED ad in today's NY Times? SUNW will do well as the standard barer:
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday January 11, 8:02 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
First Services Meeting the 'SunTone(SM) Certified' Standard Hit Market
100+ Dot-Coms Join SunTone(SM) Certification Program to Take Advantage of Multi-Million Dollar Marketing and Sales Development Initiatives From Sun Microsystems
PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- In a pioneering effort to make 7-by-24 service and reliability the norm for consumer and business Internet-based services, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW - news) has rallied support from more than 100 Service Providers (SPs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) for its SunTone(SM) Certification and Branding Program. This comprehensive specification and program leads the industry in detailing rigorous criteria for building, operating, and promoting virtually fool-proof Web services.
Sun announced today that services meeting Level One of the SunTone Certification standard now are available from nine of the industry's leading SPs, demonstrating tangible results from more than six months of technical planning and evaluation. The first SPs to offer services that meet the SunTone standard include Corio, Digex, Digital Island, eOnline, Exodus, GlobalCenter (a Global Crossing company), Niku Corporation, Portera, and USinternetworking, Inc. Certification under the SunTone program provides assurance to customers that every aspect of the SP's operations and infrastructure has been evaluated and judged to be of the highest quality.
To solidify the SunTone Certified brand as the industry's premier mark of quality for SPs, Sun also unveiled a new SunTone Certified logo, backed by an extensive marketing campaign. The company launched a multi-million dollar advertising campaign in major media to create brand awareness for this unique program.
Demonstrating its commitment to making its customers successful, Sun also announced it is putting its worldwide sales and marketing resources behind an aggressive effort to drive customers to SPs offering services that meet the SunTone Certified standard via a comprehensive suite of go-to-market initiatives. The new initiatives include cooperative marketing, financing and consulting, and will be supported by several thousand of Sun's sales, service and marketing personnel worldwide.
Sun also introduced a dual compensation plan for its sales force in order to drive its traditional enterprise customers to SPs that are certified under the SunTone program. Under the plan, Sun's sales representatives for both enterprise and service provider accounts will receive compensation for selling outsourced services to an enterprise customer through a service provider that meets the SunTone Certified standard, just as they would be compensated for selling a solution directly to the enterprise customer to provide the solution in-house.
''Sun has been down in the trenches with the companies driving the new Net Economy and is taking a leadership role in making Web tone as reliable as dial tone,'' said Ed Zander, Sun's president and chief operating officer. ''The SunTone Certification and Branding Program has garnered overwhelming industry support because it provides SPs with the specific resources and tools they need today to architect and certify their solutions and then get them to market quickly and effectively.''
Go-to-Market Programs Put SunTone Certified SPs on the Map
Sun is committed to deploying its worldwide resources through a wide range of co-marketing and co-selling programs to help companies that are certified under the SunTone program increase sales. SPs that meet the SunTone Certified standard will be invited to participate in highly visible Sun functions including training, tradeshows, and customer events to promote their products and services. Branding and marketing efforts such as joint-advertising and joint collateral development will promote companies that are certified under the SunTone program to Sun's sales channels and customers. SPs also are eligible for co-marketing funds based on purchases from Sun. And Sun offers dual compensation to its sales force for driving new business to SPs that meet the SunTone Certified standard.
For companies certified under the SunTone program, Sun offers creative, custom tailored financing to support SPs' specific growth objectives -- whether they be a start-up or a large, established company. This includes aggressive pricing and deferred payment plans for Sun equipment and services. Sun also has established a dedicated SP financing group which will serve the specific needs of companies that meet the SunTone Certified standard for large and complex deals.
Sun Professional Services will assist SPs in building their infrastructure to meet availability guidelines as outlined in the SunTone Service Delivery Architecture specification. Sun will help SPs to identify and correct any problem areas within their IT environment which must be addressed before certification under the SunTone program is possible. Sun consultants also will help SPs write System Availability Guarantees for mission-critical applications and create an infrastructure to support them.
And Sun has established Service Provider competency centers in the United States, Europe and Asia, which can be used by SPs that meet the SunTone Certified standard as both a lab and a sales tool to demonstrate that a given application or suite of applications can be delivered as a Web service reliably, securely and with good performance; to perform integration and interoperability tests; and to showcase their solutions to end-user customers and partners.
The Industry Seal of Quality
The explosion of e-commerce and applications hosting has left too many service providers unable to meet customer expectations. A recent study found that more than a quarter of 100 Web sites tested during the holidays could not complete orders due to system crashes, blockages or other factors rendering them inaccessible. Companies who fail to perform run a high risk of losing customer loyalty.
As a tool for restoring customer confidence, the SunTone Certified standard has become a ''seal of quality'' for service providers, ISVs, and system integrators. The SunTone Certification and Branding Program was created to recognize and promote investments in processes, people, methodology and infrastructure that in turn promote the delivery of secure, reliable and predictable Internet services. To become certified, SPs must meet or exceed the requirements of the SunTone Service Delivery Architecture specification. Using the SunTone Certified logo as a guide, customers can quickly and confidently choose service providers that meet quality standards aimed at making Web tone as reliable as dial tone.
''Corporate customers whose business depends on the availability and reliability of critical hosted applications will demand SunTone Certified services,'' Zander said. ''Online retailers also are starting to look for SunTone certification as a test of their service provider's credibility.''
Level One of the SunTone Certification program deals with SP infrastructure and operational practices. Level Two, which will be addressed in the SunTone Specification 2.0, will focus on availability, security and scalability and will apply to software applications and system integrators, in addition to SPs. Level Three of the program will detail manageability guidelines. The SunTone Certified program will foster the rapid growth of the application service provider market by providing standards for building reliable
architectures and supporting customer service level agreements.
SUNTONE CERTIFIED, the new standard,
Michael |
