Sun Boosts VDI, Cuts Storage Needs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced the availability of Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Software 3, which provides new enhancements and features to help companies maximize their IT infrastructure utilization and improve manageability of desktop deployments. Sun VDI Software 3 offers ground-breaking VDI storage economics, built-in virtualization capabilities, and support for a wide variety of virtual desktop operating systems. The open architecture of Sun VDI Software 3 now gives users access to a broader choice of client devices and virtualization hosts -- increasing flexibility, management efficiency and data security. Sun VDI Software 3 is available for purchase immediately and a free trial of the software can be downloaded at: http://www.sun.com/software/vdi/get.jsp

Sun VDI Software 3 represents a seamless solution, leveraging core open source technologies including Sun's Open Storage, OpenSolaris, VirtualBox and MySQL. With Sun VDI Software 3, customers can deploy a number of virtual desktop operating systems, including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 2000, OpenSolaris and Ubuntu, and access these operating systems from a variety of client devices -- such as traditional PCs or Macs, energy-efficient Sun Ray thin clients, or thin clients from other vendors. In addition, to host virtual desktop environments, IT architects can opt to use the improved integration with VMware Infrastructure, leverage Sun built-in virtualization, or use a mixture of the two.

"The open architecture of our Sun VDI Software 3 creates a new dimension of choice and integration with Sun's high-performing Open Storage systems," said Jim McHugh, Vice President of Datacenter Marketing, Sun Microsystems. "Customers can now increase the utilization of existing IT assets; gain greater flexibility in client, desktop operating systems and host virtualization; increase scalability and simplify management; and mitigate the #1 issue facing all VDI deployments -- the cost of storage. In today's volatile economy, these advantages and capabilities can bring significant benefits to virtualization customers."

Sun Microsystems Inc.