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Agreement with NCR could strengthen Sun's Windows NT integration story.
NCR Corp. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. last week announced an agreement under which Sun's Solaris operating system will come bundled with NCR's WorldMark servers, which are powered by Intel Corp. processors.
The long-term thrust of the agreement is to provide Sun's Unix-based operating system as an option for customers looking to make the move to servers based on Intel's 64-bit Merced chip when it hits the streets in mid-1999.
Sun Chairman Scott McNealy predicted this move, in conjunction with future partnerships with other vendors whose servers run on Intel processors, will position Solaris as the 64-bit Unix software of choice. He also said the agreement will help Solaris compete against Windows NT Server, the only other operating system McNealy expects to be successful in evolving to support Merced.
Sun also is aiming to bolster its NT integration story by aligning itself with NCR, an enterprise server vendor with a strong presence in the NT market, one analyst said.
"While Sun bashes NT left and right, [the company] wants users to run Solaris as back-end service to NT clients," said Robert Dorin, a senior analyst with Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Boston consultancy. "This [agreement] could help users believe that Solaris can be useful in a mixed environment."
By year-end, NCR will offer Solaris alongside its own flavor of Unix, MP-RAS, on its oneto eight-processor WorldMark 4800 servers. While NCR plans to enhance and support its 32-bit MP-RAS, the only 64-bit Unix operating system it will offer will be Solaris, said Bill Eisenman, senior vice president of NCR's Computer Systems Group.
NCR and Sun will integrate MP-RAS' enterprise scalability features, such as dynamic configuration on startup and the ability to hot-swap server components, into future versions of Solaris. Also, NCR will migrate its Teradata database management system to Solaris.
NCR: (513) 297-5700; Sun: (800) 786-7638
Copyright Network World Inc. Aug 11, 1997
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
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