SUNW News Alert Follows From EquityAlert.com
Sun Microsystems Ramps Up Storage Business; Takes Steps to Capture Increased
Share of Fast Growing Network Storage Market Promotes Jeff Allen to VP of New
Storage Sales Line of Business and Promotes Denise Shiffman to VP of Network
Storage Marketing
PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb 9, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Sun Microsystems
(Nasdaq: SUNW) today announced plans to dramatically increase its sales and
marketing activities to attack the exploding storage market. As part of its
expanded focus on network storage, Sun has created a new storage sales Line of
Business, promoted two executives to positions of increased responsibility, and
outlined initial details of a comprehensive network storage strategy.
"We are living in a world where digital information is the lifeblood of commerce
and community," said Ed Zander, president of Sun Microsystems. "As every person
and digital device connects to the Internet, it will create enormous demand for
our storage products and services. As a premiere platform provider for the
Internet economy, we continue to invest heavily in our storage business. We've
assembled the necessary people, products and technology to capture an increased
share of this fast growing network storage market."
Over the past two years, Sun has built an independent storage business that has
grown to become one the industry's foremost suppliers of open systems storage,
fibre channel storage, and open storage area networks.
"We have implemented several initiatives to further improve our ability to
deliver world-class storage products, services and support," added Janpieter
Scheerder, president of Sun Network Storage. "We recently established a
dedicated worldwide storage systems sales force to better support our customers.
Our increased investment in our enterprise services group -- the enterprise
practice around our storage -- has dramatically improved customer satisfaction."
Jeff Allen Promoted to Lead New Sun Network Storage Sales Development
Group
Effective immediately, Sun has promoted Jeff Allen, formerly vice president of
marketing for Sun Network Storage, to vice president of the storage sales Line
of Business, where he will implement focused programs to assist the network
storage sales, service and support efforts of Sun's worldwide sales
organization. Mr. Allen will report directly to both Janpieter Scheerder, Sun's
Network Storage president, and Frank Pinto, Sun's worldwide sales vice
president. Reporting to Mr. Allen's new group will be a team of sales, training
and support executives from Enterprise Services and Computer Systems.
Denise Shiffman Promoted to Network Storage Vice President of Marketing
Replacing Jeff Allen as vice president of marketing for Network Storage is
Denise Shiffman, a nine-year Sun veteran who has previously held various
management positions in Sun's desktop and server groups.
Shiffman most recently served as director of content services, where she
successfully guided the product development, marketing and business development
of the Jiro (TM) technology storage management standard and the Sun StorEdge(TM)
Media Central video server product line. Ms. Shiffman will continue to report to
Janpieter Scheerder, and in her new role will oversee Sun's expanded marketing
and partner development efforts.
Sun Attacks Market with Complete Family of Network Storage Systems and
Services
Sun offers customers a complete family of end-to-end data storage solutions.
Sun's products span server-attached storage, consolidated storage networks,
storage area networks, management software, remote management, data services for
high availability, and storage-specific professional services. The products
offer exceptional reliability, availability, scalability, manageability and
performance.
Sun provides a complete enterprise service practice offering remote storage
management. The Sun StorEdge HealthCheck software proactively diagnoses and
evaluates customer configurations to ensure a highly available environment. Sun
also assists customers with the design, installation and ongoing maintenance of
their storage. Recently enhanced professional services offerings provide
solutions for disaster recovery, backup and restore, and SAN implementation.
Sun has invested heavily in management software and data services this past year
and now offers Sun StorEdge Management Console software and Sun StorEdge
Component Manager software, two solid storage management products that provide
customers the ability to configure and re-configure storage, manage events and
check the health of their storage systems. With the introduction of Sun StorEdge
Instant Image software, a new point-in-time copy solution, customers can
eliminate downtime for back-ups and ensure data availability.
During the coming months, all Sun storage systems and management software will
introduce support for Jiro technology. Based on the Java (TM) 2 platform, Jiro
technology eliminates interoperability issues between storage systems,
management software and network devices, and is an important enabler of next
generation storage networks.
About Sun Network Storage
Sun Network Storage was formed by Sun Microsystems in July 1998, and is a
recognized multi-billion dollar industry leader in the UNIX(R) and open systems
storage market. Sun is changing the rules in network storage by delivering
software and hardware written to an open network architecture. Sun's commitment
to standards enables timely availability of new technology, investment
protection for existing technology, and a thriving partner community. The
comprehensive Sun StorEdge family of products enables customers to match storage
to the application while providing scalable capacity and performance in a
"pay-as-you-grow" architecture.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The
Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading
provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the
Internet and allow companies worldwide to ".com" their businesses. With $12.4
billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on
the World Wide Web at sun.com.
NOTE: Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Sun StorEdge, Java, Jiro and The
Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc., in the United States and other countries. UNIX is a
registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively
licensed through X/Open Company Ltd.
SOURCE Sun Microsystems, Inc. |
