Sun trumpets big channel year

Sun Microsystems in the US has claimed 54 percent of its overall revenue came through the channel during fiscal year 2004, which ended 30 June.

In the previous fiscal year, 47 percent of Sun's total sales came through resellers, the US vendor said.

Sun executives attributed some of the indirect sales gain to the success of the vendor's iForce partner program, the Putting Partners First framework and the Sun Partner Connect ISV program.

Executives also pointed to a buzz preceding the November arrival of Sun's Solaris 10 operating system.

"Sun's iForce priorities this year were to simplify the engagement process, help partners increase their margins and recognise partner investments in Sun's business," said Greg Stroud, vice-president of iForce partner sales at Sun, in a statement.

"Delivering on these priorities enabled our partners to create and deliver innovative solutions based on Sun technology."

A US reseller, Atempo, became an iForce member primarily to take advantage of Sun's iForce labs, according to John Meaney, vice-president and general manager of US and Asia-Pacific operations at Atempo.

But Meaney said it was too soon to tell how much being an iForce partner had improved Atempo's bottom line. He said the reseller, which had been an iForce partner for only a month, was still learning about the benefits of the program.

"It's still pretty early. I don't doubt the program is a benefit. We just need to get better versed at steering our customers into their labs," Meaney said.

Marc Maselli, president of US reseller Back Bay Technologies, said the underlying message in Sun's increase in channel revenue was the vendor's awareness that it must become more solution-oriented.

"Sun has got better, but they are a box company and Solaris 10 is their most important product. They are not a solutions company.

"The fact we are on Sun's National Council and are a vertically oriented solution company shows Sun is beginning to get it. Sun knows it needs to move from boxes to solutions and it is working with VARs like us to get there," said Maselli.

Sun said that iForce had more than 700 members. Yet not all Sun resellers aim to join the program.

Pete Parenti, chief technical officer of another US VAR, Total Sanity Solutions, said it used to sell more Sun products and thus wasn't considering becoming an iForce partner.

"We sold a lot of Sun to the financial industry for a while, but Linux has taken that whole ball of wax," Parenti said. "I see a lot more firms doing Linux for web infrastructure than Sun."