SUN Microsystems Partners With Open Storage Management Leader APPIQ To Accelerate Delivery Of Heterogeneous, Standards - Based Management SolutionsOLUTIONS SuSE

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Monday, February 23, 2004; 12:00 AM

Santa Clara, CA and Burlington, MA -- February 23, 2004 -- Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW), and AppIQ, Inc. today announced a strategic partnership that strengthens Sun's heterogeneous storage management software strategy to deliver increased choice and flexibility to its customers while lowering costs and complexity in the data center. As a result of this best-in-class partnership, through which Sun will license AppIQ storage area management technology and the two companies will jointly develop new software solutions, Sun Network Storage will deliver a comprehensive, heterogeneous, standards-based storage management platform that meets the diverse needs of enterprise customers.

In selecting this strategic technology provider, Sun considered AppIQ's breadth of heterogeneous storage management capabilities; unique focus in managing the complete storage stack from business application to disk spindle; extensible, flexible Java and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Web services architecture; and leadership role in the adoption of the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) and Common Information Model (CIM) standards.

"This relationship further demonstrates Sun's focus on delivering network computing solutions that reduce cost and complexity for our customers," said Mark Canepa, executive vice president, Sun Network Storage. "To date the cost of managing storage far exceeds the purchase price of the storage itself. Licensing and co-developing technology with AppIQ will give Sun the ability to deliver the heterogeneous management platform required to make storage resources available to applications as needed for increased performance at more affordable prices."

As a result of this partnership, the Sun StorEdge Enterprise Storage Manager (ESM) framework will leverage functionality from AppIQ StorageAuthority Suite to advance its heterogeneous storage management capabilities. The partnership also adds powerful new enterprise capabilities for end-to-end management of applications and databases as well as advanced path provisioning capabilities.

"AppIQ really is a perfect partner for Sun -- its vision for standards-based management and open platforms is very synergistic with Sun's larger N1 Grid strategy," said Senior Analyst Nancy Marrone-Hurley of the Enterprise Storage Group. "The co-development will enable Sun to take advantage of AppIQ's comprehensive, applications-focused storage management platform and to concentrate on accelerating the delivery of open, fully integrated enterprise management solutions."

AppIQ StorageAuthority Suite is an award-winning, best-in-class product family for heterogeneous storage management. It has been recognized as a platform for building a storage utility for the enterprise through integrated SAN management, storage resource management (SRM), and storage provisioning capabilities. The software provides heterogeneous device support, application management, and automation tools -- all architected on the Storage Networking Industry Association's (SNIA) SMI-S standard.

"Our partnership with Sun further solidifies AppIQ's position as the leading provider of integrated, open solutions for building and managing a storage utility," said Dave Lemont, president and CEO, AppIQ. "By delivering AppIQ's technology through Sun, a premier systems vendor and one of the most trusted names in enterprise computing, AppIQ gains another strong worldwide distribution channel and service and support network. We expect this natural partnership to further expand AppIQ's market presence, and help Sun make rapid strides toward achieving its enterprise storage vision for its customers."

The products resulting from this licensing and co-development partnership will enhance Sun's current SAN management, storage resource management, and heterogeneous provisioning solutions. The new products will be available from Sun in the second half of 2004.

Hitachi Data Systems, a long-time Sun partner, also announced a global partnership with AppIQ recently. Hitachi Data Systems' Vice President of Storage Management Software Jack Domme commented, "The Sun and AppIQ relationship creates opportunity for both HDS and Sun."

About AppIQ, Inc.

AppIQ, Inc. provides comprehensive software solutions that enable enterprise IT organizations to efficiently manage data storage as an application-focused IT utility. AppIQ's storage area management solutions seamlessly integrate physical and logical storage resource visualization, provisioning, monitoring, reporting, and policy-based automation, and correlate the availability of business-critical applications with storage network configuration, capacity and performance. Customers that rely on AppIQ solutions to reduce operational costs, improve IT efficiency and ensure application availability include Boston Stock Exchange, Nielsen Media Research, and The Weather Channel. AppIQ, based in Burlington, Mass., is a privately held firm funded by Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and other investors. For more information, visit http://www.appiq.com

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com