Solstice Solstice Solutions Program for Enterprise Management


In today's global economy, increased competitiveness and shorter product life cycles are business realities for companies of all types and sizes. Companies must be able to respond to market dynamics quickly and cost-effectively to stay in business. As a result, the centralized, hierarchical management and control structures of many companies are giving way to organizations of dispersed business units, loosely-linked yet autonomous.

As part of that process, data and data processing power is shifting down and out to end-users, and the focus of information systems is moving from computers to networks. Network-based organizations are distributing computing resources across the enterprise, confronting multiple platforms, numerous sites, many users, large amounts of data, and large numbers of transactions.

Distributed environments require new management tools

As the number of systems and users increase, the integration and management of computing resources becomes more complex--and more important. While many older systems management tools were sufficient to manage mainframe-based environments which typically had one centralized, scarce resource shared among many users, they do not have the functionality needed to manage distributed environments where many local resources are shared among users. Neither are network management tools sufficient: traditionally these tools have dealt only with polling, monitoring, and managing problems on a network.

As the requirements for managing systems and networks have merged, a new class of tools has evolved: enterprise management tools. Enterprise management tools provide the ability to monitor, tune, and generally manage the components of client/server and heterogeneous environments.

Management processes applicable across the distributed enterprise

Providing the functionality needed to manage a distributed environment, enterprise management tools free the IT manager to focus on tasks rather than devices, and create management processes that are applicable across the enterprise. For example, managers of a distributed network need not know details of individual systems, configurations, or applications to check network traffic, back-up a disk, or install software at remote sites.

Implementing management processes in a distributed environment as opposed to handling issues ad hoc allows an IS organization to act and react consistently--even as technologies and locations change. The benefits of implementing such a strategy in a client/server environment are numerous:

Solstice Solutions Program for managing heterogeneous enterprises

Sun's enterprise management strategy is to provide customers the framework and solutions they need to create management processes for systems and networks in a distributed, heterogeneous environment. As part of our strategy, we are:

The comprehensive program which implements the Sun enterprise management strategy is called the Solstice Solutions Program. The Solstice Solutions Program provides a full suite of best-in-class, heterogeneous solutions from Sun and other leading vendors. Solstice Solutions provide Sun customers the flexibility to optimize management of complex networks in today's dynamic business climate.

Solstice Solutions from Sun include the backbone network and systems management technologies of SunNet Manager and other products. Sun's commitment to open application programming interfaces (APIs) allows independent software vendors (ISVs) to link their enterprise management tools closely to those from Sun.

The Solstice Solutions Program is unique in that it provides enterprise management solutions that are:

Each of these attributes will be discussed in more detail in the following sections.

Comprehensive solutions for all areas of enterprise management

Top third-party solutions, combined with those from Sun, provide a robust portfolio of Solstice Solutions that address the critical functions of enterprise management. Solstice Solutions address management issues common to a distributed environment, and have offerings to optimize, protect, organize, and control client/server resources.

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Optimize resources to improve performance and availability

Protect resources to ensure integrity and availability

Organize resources to minimize long-term costs

Control operations to improve user satisfaction

Solstice Solutions are scalable and heterogeneous for user flexibility

The ability to adapt to different environments gives Solstice Solutions the flexibility needed to manage heterogeneous environments. For example, Solstice Solutions are supported on a variety of hardware platforms from numerous vendors. Customers can thus choose the right solution to meet their needs, regardless of the heterogeneity of their network. The number and quality of Solstice Solutions also provides customer flexibility by offering access to the best solutions from leading software companies.

In addition, Solstice Solutions meet customer needs across an enterprise, in small work groups, medium-sized departments, and complete organizations. Consequently, the solutions can also be scaled up as needed to meet increasing needs of growing organizations--while preserving customers' investments.

Commitment to open APIs and partner program improves integration

Although Sun's enterprise management solutions come from a variety of sources, they are aligned with the Sun environment. One reason for this alignment is that Sun's operating system, Solaris, as well as Sun's core network management software has open APIs. Thus, ISVs can easily tune their products to run on Sun, integrating functionality and optimizing performance.

To promote closer integration with Sun's core technologies, we have created a specialized program for ISVs with best-of-class enterprise management solutions. Designed to foster close working relationships, the Solstice Solutions Partner Program for Enterprise Management is the new top tier of Sun's software partnership programs. Membership in this program is offered only to our most strategic enterprise management solution providers, and indicates the superior level of integration and focus an ISV provides the Sun environment.

Solstice Solutions tested and certified in Sun environment

Participation in the Solstice Solutions Program means solution providers will meet certain requirements for integration in a heterogeneous environment. For example, Solstice Solutions vendors will have their products tested and certified in a Sun network.

Sun is providing the lab and technical resources to run and manage an ongoing test environment which simulates a user environment with heavy network traffic. Sun core products will be installed, and Solstice Solutions from Sun and ISVs will be tested to ensure compatibility with:

In addition to testing ISV products with Sun products, complementary ISV products will be tested together in an interoperability matrix to ensure true operational compatibility and functionality in a Sun environment. The result is that product compatibility is ensured and the costs of integration are reduced.

Products which pass the test suite will received Solstice Solutions Certification. Upon completion of their products' certification testing, Solstice Solutions Partners will be allowed to use a specially-designed partner logo on their advertising and marketing collateral.

Dedicated engineering support for Solstice Solutions Partners

Benefits received by Solstice Solutions Partners are also advantageous to end users. For example, Solstice Solutions Partners receive dedicated engineering support from Sun's labs, as well as pre-release copies of Solaris and Sun's Solstice Solutions. With early access to technical support and Sun software, Solstice Solutions Partners can make updated versions of their solutions available to customers more quickly.

Solstice Solutions are comprehensive, flexible, and integrated

In summary, Sun's strategy is to help our customers create stable systems management processes for managing their network-based enterprises. The Solstice Solutions Program is part of that strategy, providing a full suite of best-in-class, heterogeneous solutions from Sun and other leading vendors.

Solstice Solutions are comprehensive: not only do they cover all critical areas of systems management, but individually they offer robust functionality needed in networked environments. Solstice Solutions are flexible, meaning they can manage heterogeneous resources in work groups, departments, and enterprises. Lastly, Solstice Solutions are integrated because of Sun's use of open APIs. Customers can look for the Solstice Solutions Certification logo for assurance that products have been tested and are integrated into a Sun environment.

The Solstice Solutions Program helps Sun customers shorten the process of identifying and selecting enterprise management solutions. Not only can customers depend on getting the best solutions to meet their enterprise management needs--they can be assured the solution they choose will work well in a Sun environment.

For more information

For information on specific Solstice Solutions from Sun and ISVs, please read the next section of this Executive Guide: Solstice Solutions by Category.

For more information on Solstice Solutions Program for Enterprise Management please call your Sun sales rep.