Looks Like Same Old Sun

The StorageTek acquisition wont provide any quick fixes for Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) storage.

Sun’s new storage products announced today look a lot like Sun’s old storage products, and newly acquired StorageTek doesn’t figure in the rollout at all. The handful of storage products Sun announced today were in the works long before the StorageTek deal closed. They even retain the StorEdge brand, although Sun says it will use the StorageTek brand on future storage products following its $4.1 billion purchase (see Sun to Acquire StorageTek for $4.1B) and Sun Sets on StorageTek).

“These products were already in the pipeline prior to the decision to change the brand name,” says Randy Kerns, Sun’s VP of strategy and planning. “They’ll have the StorEdge name, but as we roll out new versions or new products, they’ll have the StorageTek brand.”

The latest Sun products come from the acquisition of NAS vendor Procom Technology Inc. and partnerships with Dot Hill Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: HILL), Engenio Information Technologies Inc., and Quantum Corp. (NYSE: DSS). Here’s a quick rundown of the “new” stuff:

Don’t expect any big announcements on integrating the Sun and StorageTek platforms, either. Sun will keep just about everything that both companies have been selling for now and slowly integrate the two platforms through quarterly updates.

“Almost all of it will stay,” Kerns says of the StorageTek and Sun storage products. “There’s very little product overlap.”

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch0