Zander: Sun gains from HP merger

NEWS

Outgoing Sun Microsystems president and chief operating officer Ed Zander said Thursday that his company's competitive position against IBM and newly enlarged Hewlett-Packard has improved over the last month. "I expected more competitiveness" from HP following its merger with Compaq Computer, Zander said. But once customers get a look at the company's new business plan, he said, they're "ready to look at alternatives." HP last month completed the largest technology merger in history by acquiring Compaq. Zander, who will step down from his positions at Sun on 1 July, spoke at Bear Stearns' annual technology conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel here. Zander said the HP-Compaq merger has been "a positive" for Sun over the last 30 days as several HP customers have approached Sun requesting sales presentations. He blamed the combined company's "narrowing focus" and indecisiveness for its customers' wandering eyes. Sun has also improved its competitive stance versus IBM, according to Zander. "In the last quarter, we have gained more market share against IBM than we have in the last five quarters," he said. The long-running war of words between Sun and IBM shows no signs of abating. For its part, IBM said earlier this week it has sold 200 of its new lower-end z800 mainframes in the two months since they went on sale, citing the figure as evidence that Sun is failing to lure customers to its own Unix servers. Sun, meanwhile, has been vocal in its mainframe assault: Last month it launched its "Blue-Away" project to convert mainframe customers to its servers. IBM and Sun are also duking it out to steal multimillion-dollar deals from each other. While Sun has wooed away Galileo International, which supplies airfare pricing information to United Airlines and others, Big Blue recently announced that it has won a larger customer from Sun, Colgate-Palmolive. Zander said he believes the market will prove Sun's so-called "best of breed" approach to be preferable to IBM's services strategy. IBM's approach is to bundle technologies and services together, while Sun allows a company's IT department to pick and choose different hardware and software. "The Genuitys and (British Telecoms) of the world can do a better job of outsourcing than IBM," Zander said. Zander said he couldn't comment on Sun's financial performance because the company was in a "quiet period" leading up to its quarterly earnings report. He did say, however, that IT budgets remain tight, with weakness in Europe. Bear Stearns said it hosted a dinner for Zander on Wednesday at which the topic of his departure came up. "Zander indicated that there was a strong team, although (recent executive departures) continue to raise concerns," Bear Stearns analyst Andy Neff said in a research note.

More enterprise IT news in ZDNet UK's Tech Update Channel.

For a weekly round-up of the enterprise IT news, sign up for the Tech Update newsletter. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

ike fuelband is great for every healthminded person ! to work out! theres this website called textme4free.com that you can use to text anywhere in...

5 hours ago by bordero on Nike's FuelBand wristband gamifies exercise

> I'm told it's somewhat annoying when people have their Macs stolen > and Apple stores treat the thief as the owner, but there you go. Ouch,...

7 hours ago by BrownieBoy on AMD Ultrathins to challenge Intel Ultrabooks

@kevinmchapman. OK, I acknowledge that 'most' was a gratuitous throwaway comment as an afterthought and too presumptuous. As to proof, as you...

11 hours ago by Moley on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

@BrownieBoy > Works really well for thieves.... >> Nice attempt to deflect the argument by tossing in a point that's totally >> irrelevant, even...

13 hours ago by Jack Schofield on AMD Ultrathins to challenge Intel Ultrabooks

fantastic that the so called piracy bills have been withdrawn. however, these anti-democracy supporters are still in the shadows so lets be alert...

13 hours ago by raskolnikof on SOPA, Protect IP support wavers in face of online protest

Please God no; teach them anything you like - thinking rationally, the uses and misuses of data, what data is and what it's not - but leave the...

16 hours ago by Tony Douglas via Facebook on Kids are the future. Teach ’em to code.

@Jack, > Works really well for thieves.... Nice attempt to deflect the argument by tossing in a point that's totally irrelevant, even it were...

1 day ago by BrownieBoy on AMD Ultrathins to challenge Intel Ultrabooks

Make that 13 people now - I got refused today at Manchester airport. I thought I was up to date on this legislation - I knew of the EU ruling from...

1 day ago by bootlegger on UK airport body scans will not be opt out

Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...

1 day ago by tinycg on Four top iPad apps for people on the move

Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly? I thought perhaps it was something to do with...

2 days ago by TerryRK on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...

2 days ago by Freebies202 on Microsoft fixes blog comments, speeds up blogs with open source

"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...

2 days ago by kevinmchapman on A tale of two distros: Ubuntu and Linux Mint