Sun brings Sun Startup Essentials Program to India

Program Offers Eligible Startups access to key technologies and products from Sun

Sun Microsystems, India today announced that it is expanding its successful Sun Startups Essentials(SM) program into India to help early stage companies get up and running quickly while conserving cash in this emerging market. The program (www.sun.com/startupessentials) will help the startup community access to key technology and services to help them stay ahead of competition and get to market quickly by offering them discounts on a range of Sun's industry-leading technologies and services and the ability to subscribe to Web hosting services from Sun partners at deeply discounted rates.

In today's market, early stage companies are challenged to quickly bring to market applications and to offer them with high scalability and availability within their limited IT budget. These startup companies are constantly looking for ways to become more efficient with their resources while they have to plan for success. Sun provides startups with an opportunity to help them reach their full potential through the Sun Startup Essentials program, which was launched in the United States in November 2006 and approximately 700 companies have applied for the program today. In response to a large demand from startups based outside the United States who expressed interest in the Sun Startup Essentials program, Sun is extending the program to India and the Peoples Republic of China due to the rapid growth in numbers of developers and startups in these regions. This extension is the first step in Sun's larger BRICK (Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea) strategy to expand programs to the world's most vibrant, rapidly emerging markets.

Speaking at the launch of the program, Mr K.P.Unnikrishnan, Director- Marketing, Strategic Alliances and Teleweb Sales, Sun Microsystems India said, "India's large developer population and dynamic market conditions provide just the right environment to seed start ups. And one of the basic requirements for these organizations to be up and running quickly is the use of technology infrastructure. Through this program, we act as a technology enabler by providing affordable technology and lending our experience and support to such companies, which could be the catalyst for the growth of the Indian economy.

"Sun is an avid supporter of building communities and through the Sun Startup Essentials program we're able to share our experience as well as offer substantial discounts to these early stage companies," said Juan Carlos Soto, VP of Market Development at Sun Microsystems. "By making the program available in these emerging markets in Asia, we're tapping into an innovative community that adopts and adapts new technology rapidly and enabling startups to get to market quickly and economically."

Commenting on the program, Mr Pradeep Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, CyberMedia Group who is a TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Delhi Charter Member said,"The Sun Start up Essentials program is a great program for startups, designed to simplify the process of setting up their business. By alleviating most of the challenges that startups face at the initial stages, this program will definitely foster the spirit of entrepreneurship among individuals. Congratulations to Sun for coming up with this program. We believe that this program will contribute to the development of a good early-stage ecosystem in India."

CUSTOMER QUOTES

Sybrant technologies

"In this competitive era, time to market is the key to the initial success for any startup, but so is cost control. The Sun Startup Essentials Program helps address both these very effectively and thus ensures that we have what it takes to get our company up and running, fast. Further, this program will also strengthen our relationship with Sun and help develop new opportunities to accelerate the growth of our business."

V.Thiyagarajan, Chairman, Sybrant technologies

ILabs

The Sun Startup Essentials Program's offer to provide Startup Companies with direct access not only to Sun's excellent products at discounted rates, but also puts the startups in touch with the Sun team who provide invaluable technical assistance and product roadmaps. The Program thus makes a lot of sense for start ups like ours as it helps address some of the challenges that we face as a young company."

Hari Krishnan Iyer, Founder Director, iLabs

Sun Startup Essentials Program

Like the U.S.program, the Sun Startup Essentials program in the PRC and India help eligible startup companies by allowing them to purchase a range of discounted Sun products and services, including its award-winning Sun Fire(TM) x64 servers and Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads(TM) technology. Program members can also work with Sun partners Joyent and NaviSite to rent discounted Web hosting infrastructure based on Sun technologies. In addition to offering products and services to eligible PRC-based and India-based startup companies, Sun is also offering free technical advice via email and access to free software such as Apache, MySQL and Perl (AMP) optimized to run on the Solaris(TM) 10 OS.

To join the program and have direct online access to these offerings, please visit http://www.sun.com/startupessentials