Mon - SUN gradually recovering, announces new servers

Sun Microsystems announced the introduction of a new line of servers, called Galaxy, from their acquisition last year of start-up Kealia.

Kealia's Galaxy machine uses eight AMD chips working in parallel, which should enable it to nearly double the performance of existing systems based on four chips. Galaxy marks a return to SUN's roots as a maker of low-cost machines at a time when customers increasingly are seeking cheaper products based on chips from Intel and AMD. Galaxy does seem to provide a compelling offering based on price/performance.

SUN does seem to be stablising again as a company. SUN's total sales are projected to rise this year for the first time in four years and the company will benefit markedly from from the $4.1 billion purchase of data-storage software vendor Storage Technology, which will add more than $2 billion in annual sales.

SUN's gradual commercialisation of Java and embracing of open source software could also prove a valuable longer term strategy.