Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc. To Provide Solaris Operating System Processing Service To Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)

DISA to Deploy Sun’s “Pay Per Use” Utility Computing Solution to Department of Defense Customers

WASHINGTON, DC October 31, 2006 Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: SUNW) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc., was awarded a competitive 5-year contract, plus 3 option years, to provide data center processing capacity as a utility based service for the Solaris Operating System to the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). The contract currently has a ceiling of $125 million.

Under this contract, Sun will deploy Sun Utility Computing and Capacity Management solutions to DISA’s 18 data centers to provide application-ready Solaris OS processing capacity. Sun’s service will provide server capacity capable of handling all of the multiple types of Solaris application workloads DISA processes, including logistics, finance, and command and control applications. Sun Cluster business continuity software will be used to provide automatic application failover when required. The service will include Sun’s comprehensive Sun N1 System Manager suite of management, deployment, measurement and monitoring tools to ensure responsive performance and deployment of new workloads. In addition, Sun’s unique Solaris Containers technology introduced in Solaris 10 will enable DISA to virtualize its workload, resulting in vastly improved utilization and reduced management costs.

DISA is an application host provider for DOD Services and Agencies. They host over 1,400 combat support and command and control applications on a fee for service basis. This new contract will allow them to be more responsive and cost effective for their DOD customers. The contract enables DISA to acquire processing capability as a utility based service for Solaris applications and only pay for the capacity that it actually uses.

“Sun’s processing service for the Solaris Operating System will provide DISA with tremendous IT and fiscal flexibility,” said Bill Vass, president and COO of Sun Microsystems Federal. “Sun is determined to provide a solution that allows DISA to respond quickly to new or changing workloads, leverage the benefits of a utility computing model and achieve the highest performance levels backed by a Service Level Agreement (SLA).”

Sun will install Sun owned hardware in DISA data centers to provide this service to support both classified and unclassified network requirements. Sun will incorporate both SPARC and AMD Opteron architecture-based server systems in the service it provides. The service will accommodate the wide variety of computing environments that exist at DISA, ranging from small Web servers to large enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. With Sun’s service DISA data centers will be better prepared for future needs including Net-Enabled Command Capability and Net-Centric Enterprise Services-based applications as well as other DOD network-centric systems.

“DISA leadership is continually asking - how can we better serve our customers, the warfighter?” said Tony Purvis, chief of the processor line of business for DISA. “This new contract allows computing services to be more agile in delivering capacity; lowers the cost to the taxpayer (they no longer pay for unused capacity); and should decrease the amount of downtime with the software tools available.”
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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Deana Alvy

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Sun Microsystems Federal, Inc.

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