Sun Touts High Availability Suite Beta for Netra

UPDATED Sun has reached another stepping stone on the path toward 6 x 9 (99.9999) application availability in its telecom stack solutions. A beta of the High Availability Suite 2.0 for the Netra line of servers achieves a 5 x 9 rating (approximately five minutes downtime per year), which the company claims is a first for an out of the box platform. This is accomplished by hardware and software redundancy, and a multitude of real-time failsafes.

Version 2.0 is intended to win over network equipment providers by offering cost effectiveness as an incentive while catering to the demand to rapidly build and deploy solutions for services such as voice over IP (VOIP), or to construct wireless networks.

Sun claims that the beta follows 2 years of sustained development and is targeted toward customers who require continuous, connection-based services free from interruption such as datacenters and application centers. "High availability is a crucial element of maintaining a strong market position," said Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff.

Full Netra-based solutions will be sold directly to telecom providers as well as through at least 12 leading partner OEMS. Sun's Stephen Smith told BetaNews that modules of Netra HA can be integrated into existing and proprietary frameworks. A focal point of Sun's strategy is to not force the platform, said Smith.

Illuminata’s Haff cited current economic conditions and long term consumer feedback as the reasoning behind Sun’s no pressure sales tactics. According to Haff, customers are likely to resist any attempt to completely overhaul their current technology and will reject any argument that attempts to convey the message "what we have is better, throw out what you have". This is in direct relation to the trend of reducing IT spending, and the recent downturn in the broadband market.

Haff continued on, saying that Sun has fully adopted the mindset that it will sell integrateable stacks in lieu of its entire platform. He bases his claim on several years of feedback the company has received from its customers and partners alike. This is despite the fact that Sun places great stock in homogeneous Solaris based solutions. The entire span of the platform ranges from hardware, to the Solaris operating system, to the HA middleware.

IDC research reveals that Sun enjoys a majority share of the IP Telecom market at the present time. The Netra Suite 2.0 will be available worldwide in early 2002. Testing is limited to partners including GNP Computers, Hughes Software Systems and Ulticom.