Sun targets volume market with Acer channel deal

Acer will now sell Sun Microsystems server and storage offerings for the first time in Australia and New Zealand. The agreement allows Acer to expand its breadth of offerings to include Sun’s Intel and AMD based energy-efficient servers. The agreement is the first time Acer will offer x64 servers incorporating AMD processors.

Sam Srinivasan, partner sales director for A/NZ at Sun, told CRN: “We have updated a lot of our technology and have introduced a lot of new technology. For us one of the biggest challenges was to reach and participate in the volume market. The Acer channel is well entrenched in that volume space.”

Srinivasan said the x64 server market focuses heavily on volume transactions and Sun was after a channel that could deliver such sales. “We are working on a number of joint projects and you can expect to hear from us around this in the next two to three months,” added Srinivasan.

Richard Johns, business manager for enterprise solutions at Acer, said: “The main benefit is around the emergence of blade server technology and the maturity it has seen in the market. Working with Sun now plugs one of the holes in our product roadmap."

“Acer’s server line is purely Intel, but now we can offer AMD. We are still going to be focused on providing Intel, the deal it is more about providing our customers with a choice.”

Johns said he expects all of the new Sun business to go through the channel and remarked that 90 percent of Acer’s business is already channel based.

“Initially this is only being rolled out in A/NZ and could roll out round the world, but that decision will be based on each region,” added Johns.