Sun Targets Startups with New AMP and Solaris Offerings

Last week Sun made a number of announcements targeted at making Solaris more attractive to startups. Among the announcements was Solaris support for Apache, MySQL, and PHP effectively dropping the "L" from LAMP. In addition to supporting the stack Sun has optimized it for Solaris and adding in DTrace support. From the press release:

Solaris Express, Developer Edition
Solaris Express, Developer Edition is the first iteration of a new distribution based on the OpenSolaris project, providing developers with a fully integrated environment for the development of applications for Solaris, Java technology, and Web 2.0. Solaris Express, Developer Edition supports a wide variety of common x86-based desktop and laptop hardware and offers a simplified install experience so companies can get Solaris up and running more easily, reduce development time and save money. This release also includes an improved GNOME-based desktop and award-winning Sun development tools, including Sun Studio 11 software and NetBeans Integrated Development Environment 5.5, as well as over 150 open source applications. Solaris Express, Developer Edition is being worked on in the OpenSolaris community and Sun plans to release regular updates to Solaris Express, Developer Edition with additional capabilities and ease of use improvements. More information on this new program is available at: http://developers.sun.com/solarisdevex.

Solaris + AMP
Sun is now offering versions of some of the most popular open-source applications optimized for the Solaris 10 OS, including: the Apache web server, MySQL database management system, PostgreSQL object-relational database management system, Perl, PHP and Python, as well as Sun developer tools and other open source technologies. For customers committed to the open AMP stack, this offer provides the same web applications they know and use on a more secure platform with greater scalability for building and deploying web applications. As part of the new program, Sun is posting a “recipe for success” of complete step-by-step instructions so customers can get up and running more quickly, as well as multiple levels of Sun Services. Solaris + AMP also leverages Sun's popular Try and Buy Program where customers can receive a free 60 days trial of Sun systems including: Sun Fire(TM) x64 (x86, 64-bit) servers, Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads(TM) technology, Sun Ultra(TM) Workstations and Sun Storage systems. More information is available at: http://www.sun.com/solaris/amp.

Sun Startup Essentials Program
Sun has expanded its Startup Essentials Program to offer even more features to help startup companies accelerate their development cycle and get to market faster, while conserving their cash. This expanded program offers an improved buying experience with streamlined, online access to Sun hardware, including its award-winning Sun Fire x64 servers and Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads technology running the Solaris 10 OS or other operating systems. Starting today, Sun is adding Sun Storage (SAN, NAS and Direct Attached) products to the program at deeply discounted prices. In addition to offering free technical resources online, Sun is also offering Startup Essentials Program participants free technical advice and guidance via e-mail. For full details visit: http://www.sun.com/startupessentials.

Developer Services
Developers can receive specialized advice for programming issues on a per-request basis with guaranteed response times through Sun Developer Expert Assistance Service. The service is available to all developers with a cost of $49 (USD) per request or unlimited requests for an annual subscription cost of $249 (USD). Sun Developer Expert Assistance Service provides global, round-the-clock e-mail-based support on Sun software. More information is available at http://developers.sun.com/services, the comprehensive location for developers to discover all the Sun support and training options.

InfoQ caught up with Dan Roberts of Sun to discuss the new offerings. Dan noted that Solaris was picking up steam with over 7 million downloads and certification on 700 non-Sun platforms from companies such as IBM and Dell. The new Solaris editions and AMP support are part of an effort to improve startup companies usage and awareness of Solaris. Startups can also qualify for discounts of up to 60% on servers and 70% on storage hardware if they have less than 150 employees and have been in business less than 4 years. The startup hardware program includes a 60 day trial to buy option. Sun products such as Niagra and Ultra Sparc servers are included in the program.

Commenting specifically on Solaris AMP support Roberts said that the goal was to create a simplified install and out of the box development exprience. Sun wants developers/startups to consider Solaris the same way they would initially consider Red Hat Linux. In continuing to be a good open source citizen Roberts commented that all Solaris optimizations and DTrace additions were being commited back to each components respective open source project.