Sun Attacks Dell in New Ad Campaign
Sun has begun to aggressively pursue legacy Dell server owners, offering a promotion that will allow them to use their old servers as a trade-in for up to $1,900 off the purchase of a new SunFire X4100 or X4200 server.
The push comes complete with an online advertising campaign that not so subtly attacks Sun's competitor.
"Given how hot and slow our competitor's servers are," the ad reads, "it's no surprise their name rhymes with HELL." Sun says the promotional Web site has already received some 20,000 visitors.
Sun's X4100 server starts at $2,195 USD and the X4200 at $2,595 USD. The company will offer a 20 percent savings on a trade-in, bringing the base cost to $1,756 USD and $2,076 USD respectively for former Dell server owners.
Companies are given 90 days to return the Dell server to Sun, who will provide free shipping and disposal of the old system.
The company also claims a cost-savings and power benefit by switching to Sun. According to tests, a rack of X4100 servers may use up to 56 percent less power than Intel Xeon MP-based servers.
Also, Sun says its AMD based servers are up to one and a half times faster than comparable Dell Intel Xeon servers. Sun's servers are built on the Opteron processors.
New Sun server owners will also receive three years of support services as part of the program. The promotion will run through March 24, 2006.