Sun Microsystems is reinforcing its key role in the telecommunication market with the launch of the first integratable software/hardware platform that offers 99.999% availability for the development of next-generation infrastructures.
The Netra High Availability (HA) Suite 2.0, now available worldwide, is designed to maintain continuous availability for telecom applications - rounding out the company's carrier-grade platform.
According to a recent report by Cahners In-Stat/MDR*, Sun is currently the leader in the telecom server market - a sector that is predicted to reach the $8 billion mark in 2005.
Sun's Netra HA software offers 'out of the box' functionality, helping network equipment providers to build telecom server platforms with virtually no point of failure.
"As the majority of network equipment providers globally are already deploying Sun-based solutions in telecom networks, we really do understand the demanding computing requirement of this market," comments Willem Coetsee, account sales manager: telecommunications at Sun Microsystems SA.
"The Netra HA suite, combined with our Netra telecom servers, is designed to meet the industry's needs for continuous available solutions."
The Netra HA 2.0 is available on Sun's Netra systems such as the Netra ct series of cPCI telecom blade servers, and combined with the Solaris Operating System (OS) enables telecommunication companies to achieve 99.999% availability for telecom and wireless applications.
Says Mark Melenovsky, research manager for IDC's Global Enteprise Server Solutions Group: "Server vendors are only beginning to realise the high growth opportunity in the telecom server blade market.
"With this announcement, Sun leverages the one to two year headstart on its peers."
The Netra HA suite is optimised for core and access network applications such as softswitches, radio network controllers, base station controllers, media gateway, signalling gateways as well adjunct telecom servers requiring uninterrupted availability.
Telco Servers: Caching in on the Network Data Bank," Cahners In-Stat/MDR, January 2002.
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The main features of the Netra High Availability Suite 2.0 include:
* Foundation Services: These "out-of-the-box" services assist network equipment providers in implementing reliable applications and a highly available cluster without spending time and money on additional development. Software redundancy for features such as NFS and the HA-enhanced boot server help ensure maximum uptime of the file system and reboot of nodes, applications and the operating system regardless of hardware and software failures.
* Application Services: These open APIs provide building blocks for a custom fail-over framework, helping network equipment providers ease the migration from proprietary to commercially available frameworks. Features such as checkpointing and event services help developers deliver continuous availability, by preserving application data even if a node or application fails, and enabling applications to easily share information.
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