At last years future of web apps I was lucky enough to meet a Sun Microsystems representative who sold me on the idea that a massive corporation like Sun could actually engage with a tiny company like ours. At the time we were doing our very best to squeeze the cheapest possible machines out of Dell to keep to our bootstrap budget.

Perceptions

I had, probably like most, the perception that Sun sold massive servers totally out of our price range. In fact, in a recent set of presentations that I have done on behalf of Sun I have focused on this lovely server on the right, it costs about £240,000! but it does have 72 processors and 1/2 terabyte of memory, not exactly startup fodder.

Since when we first engaged with Sun we have purchased a range of servers and when I have factored in all the standard things you get (e.g. remote hands) they have come in within range of the Dell equivalent, but I get the peace of mind that I am getting enterprise grade equipment and also very importantly to me, the AMP usage at our co-lo facility is much reduced from our original set of servers.

I did a presentation at fuel conference last week and was very pleasantly surprised by the reaction I got, please go read this piece as it shows how Sun are trying to engage differently to everyone else.

I will be uploading the full slide show soon.. watch this space.

Case Study

We have also now done a case study with Sun which shows off how we have been working with them. If you are a startup or know one, go get them to read it.

Man In the Shirt

For anyone on the startup trail around the UK you will probably know or spotted Stewart Townsend because he has a fantastic collection of really bad shirts. He has been tirelessly working on behalf of startups, if you wish to start a conversation with him best place is to drop him a line via twitter