SUNSOFT'S SOLSTICE(tm) AUTOCLIENT(tm) 1.0 SHIPS


SunSoft, Inc.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Craig Welch
415-336-5456
craig.welch@eng.sun.com

SUNSOFT'S SOLSTICE(tm) AUTOCLIENT(tm) 1.0 SHIPS

Delivers revolutionary approach to centralized desktop management.

Solstice DiskSuite(tm) 4.0 also ships.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 1, 1995 -- SunSoft, Inc., today announced availability of Solstice(tm) AutoClient(tm) 1.0, the industry's first solution for high-performance centralized desktop management. A key element in SunSoft's Solstice Enterprise Management strategy announced in January of this year, Solstice AutoClient significantly lowers systems administration costs. It allows administrators to set up and manage desktop configurations and storage across the enterprise network without actually visiting the workstation site, while still providing the high application performance comparable with stand-alone clients. SunSoft also announced Solstice DiskSuite(tm) 4.0, the industry's most comprehensive storage volume management software, that provides ease of administration, optimized availability and high performance for enterprise-scale servers

"The biggest problem today in enterprise networks is the cost of operation," said
Denis Yaro, vice president and general manager of SunSoft's Enterprise Management Products group. "AutoClient and DiskSuite are end-to-end management tools that directly lower costs and increase control. Client server computing has never been this straightforward to manage before."

Solstice AutoClient 1.0

Solstice AutoClient lets powerful desktop workstations be managed like terminals. It keeps all the performance advantages of advanced distributed desktop hardware and operating environments, but it centralizes administration. And like a terminal, if the desktop breaks, all you have to do is plug in a new component as a true "field replaceable unit." It eliminates the need for time-consuming restoration of data from backup tapes to desktops, software distribution schemes, or other operations bottlenecks.

Instead of administrators loading individual software onto every desktop, Solstice AutoClient reduces company costs by automatically caching to a local disk only what the desktop system requires as it is requested. Any changes are written back to the server for central data management, eliminating the need for desktop backups. This revolutionary caching system results in reduced server CPU load, network traffic and desktop disk requirements. As a result, Solstice AutoClient can increase the number of clients a server can support to up to three times the industry average.

Solstice DiskSuite 4.0

Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 provides the most comprehensive storage volume management functionality available today from a UNIX® system vendor. These include disk mirroring and striping, a hot spares facility, a journalling version of the UNIX file system, and concatenation services for expanding volumes on-line.

New in DiskSuite 4.0 are features that support the most demanding server configurations. DiskSuite's new graphical interface -- featuring visual editing -- offers easy drag and drop, allowing operators to validate new configurations before implementing, minimizing risk. Additionally, by being able to see disk partitions, spindles, and controllers, an administrator can insure optimal configuration of mirrors.

RAID-5 is the powerful RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks) solution for UNIX environments and offers customers a choice for high data availability and increased performance, resulting in lower overall cost of ownership. RAID-5 distributes parity information across the disks, requiring fewer disk resources than mirroring.

Finally, Solstice DiskSuite 4.0 has been fine tuned to support the Solstice High Availability suite coming out later this year, offering additional levels of failover for clustered configurations. Because the same volume management technology in the Solstice High Availability offering is available in the Solaris® 2 WorkGroup, Enterprise Server and Server Suite packages, the customer's investment is protected.

Pricing and Availability

Solstice AutoClient includes a server and ten client licenses at a suggested US list price of $2,495 and is available immediately for Solaris SPARC ® and X86. Additional client licenses are available separately. AutoClient requires Solaris 2.4. Solstice DiskSuite 1.0 will be available for Solaris SPARC and x86 in June 1995. The suggested US list price is $1,295.

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© 1995 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, Inc., SunSoft, the SunSoft logo, and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All SPARC trademarks, including the SCD Compliant logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. All other products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.