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Technology Stocks : All About Sun Microsystems -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rudedog who wrote (31159)	4/20/2000 10:45:00 PM
From: QwikSand	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 64865

IBM Reaching. The press release below is almost as embarrassing to IBM as using Y2K as an excuse for a drop in revenue. The next thing you know, they'll be putting out a release about selling more Girl Scout cookies than Sun. Dog: Did you read the he-said she-said about IA-64 in the February Microprocessor Report? If not, you should. I'd be curious what you think about it. Summary: In the first piece, an Intel guy and an HP guy do what looks like some convoluted and dubious boasting about IA-64's performance. In the next, an IBM Fellow (as in Marty Hopkins) says that EPIC/IA-64 may well not deliver on its hype for most situations, and we won't really know until they ship. Worth the read if you like wading through technical chip stuff. --QS Headline: Network Solutions picks IBM server over Sun's By Reshma Kapadia NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Network Solutions Inc. said Thursday it would replace a high-performance server from Sun Microsystems Inc. with a system from International Business Machines Corp. for a number of reasons, including the ability to be upgraded. IBM's RS/6000 S80 server will replace Sun's four processor enterprise 450 server in a move the computer maker considers a major coup against Sun, which refers to itself as "the dot in dot-com." Sun (NASDAQ:SUNW) , the leading provider of the heavy-duty computers that run complex Web sites, still provides hundreds of servers on the Network Solutions network, but the IBM S80 server will be positioned at the top of Network Solution's directory server network. "We felt the IBM server gave us a couple more things such as more scalability," said Bruce Chovsnik, senior vice president and general manager of Network Solutions Registry. "We needed systems that have fewer large processors. Also, IBM has been extremely helpful in dealing with a lot of the performance issues we were having in the previous environment and have made their engineers available to us. Price was also part of the decision. "This server is the most important server on the Internet," Chovsnik said. "It is the top of the directory structure for everything and the top of the directory for .com .org and .net. It is also the authoritative server for .com, .org and .net." Sun, which claims it has taken market share from IBM to bolster its leadership in the market, said it was natural for a large customer to use several vendors. "It's amusing to me that IBM would make a hoopla over a minor placement and to try to change the topic from where they are hemorrhaging. The big picture is we are silently replacing large IBM systems, which was reflected in their (quarterly) numbers," said Shahahin Kahn, vice president of product marketing for computer systems at Sun Microsystems. IBM's first quarter revenues fell 5 percent, while Sun's rose 35 percent in the third quarter. Industry analysts were taking a more balanced view of the sale. "I'm certainly as a serious analyst not raising my estimates based on something like this," said Gary Helmig, an analyst at Wit SoundView. "However, IBM is pricing the S80s 50 percent cheaper than list and IBM is competing with Sun on price. But one win never makes a story. There are all kinds of companies struggling along saying that they won this one or that one. "The S80 is doing well, but it is not the whole RS/6000 line. They still have a brand awareness problem and winning high profile accounts does perhaps help that." Jean Bozman, research director at International Data Corp said IBM had traditionally sold more of its servers to its own installed base. "Now what IBM is trying to do this time is increase the percentage of server sales to new accounts," Bozman said. "It's part of an ongoing competition between these top vendors and we are going to see more of these things." The IBM server, which is based on advanced IBM copper microprocessor technology that makes servers faster and more reliable, was introduced in September 1999 and IBM sold more than 1000 of them in its initial three months, a company spokesman said. IBM shares closed down 1/2 at 104 and Sun closed down one at 87-3/4. Network Solutions shares also closed lower, down 10-5/16 at 128-3/16. Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service