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Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA) has announced it will expand its HP (NYSE: HPQ) Away program in a bid to lure Hewlett-Packard's Unix customers. The company will dangle its own Unix operating system, Solaris, as an alternative to HP-UX.
Sun initially launched the HP Away strategy almost two years ago when HP began to phase out its Alpha/Tru64 platform in favor of Itanium-based servers. Since then, Sun claims 80 customers have migrated to its HP alternatives, representing as much as US$200 million in additional revenue for the Santa Clara, California-based company.
"We're expanding the program to take advantage of an inflection
point in the industry," Sun senior vice president Larry Singer said.
"We're addressing the disruption around HP's architectural roadmap
and its neglect of a key customer 
base."
Sun estimates more than 270,000 customers are using HP-UX or related platforms. The company is dangling several carrots to lure HP customers to Solaris, including a lease buy-down program designed to level out the costs of migration, plus free two-week migration assessments that take into account the applications being moved as well as how a company's data storage needs might change as a result of the move.
Nothing New
HP could not be reached for comment. But as a top server-sales leader, it likely has grown accustomed to having competitors attempt to use any means at their disposal to grab market share.
Last year, for example, when HP announced it would phase out sales and support for its venerable, 30-year-old e3000 server line, IBM (NYSE: IBM) tried to use the occasion to highlight its ability to migrate customers from HP servers to its own.
"Given how fierce the competition is at the top of the server market, any delay or product change -- anything that could cause customer frustration or confusion -- is going to be an invitation for competitors to pounce," IDC vice president Jean Bozman told the E-Commerce Times. "With IT spending starting to pick up, companies may have budgets lined up and be looking for somewhere to spend them."
Sun's latest announcement comes as HP's customer base is still digesting news that HP will begin offering servers loaded with AMD's (NYSE: AMD) 64-bit processors while still trying to maintain as much loyalty as possible to the Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Itanium chip it helped develop. "Sun is banking on the news being confusing and off-putting to customers who might be ready to make a change," Bozman said.
Market Fluctuations
The move also came as research firm Gartner (NYSE: IT) reported Sun is slipping in the overall server market-share race. Gartner's data shows IBM extending its worldwide lead, with Dell moving up and threatening to bump Sun from the number three spot. HP occupies the number two slot.
Dell was the fastest-growing server seller last year, according to Gartner analyst Joseph Gonzalez, and now sits only about 3 percentage points behind Sun.
"The server market's really in flux," Gonzalez told the E-Commerce Times.
"On the Unix and Linux side and in the Intel market, the fight is going
to last for a while."
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