HP Makes Push To Attract Sun CustomersHP Makes Push To Attract Sun Customers

Hewlett-Packard is upping the ante in its competition with Sun Microsystems. HP on Friday unveiled a migration service that it will give away. Until year's end, Sun customers can enjoy $25,000 worth of services to evaluate and justify migration from Sun's Solaris operating system to Linux on HP systems.

HP's new Sun migration program includes a free assessment of porting and migration for up to three applications, the actual porting of one app, use of an HP ProLiant server for 30 days, and an HP StorageWorks storage area network assessment for potentially improved storage utilization.

Jamie Gruener at the Yankee Group thinks the payout is an aggressive move by HP to convert more Sun Solaris customers to Linux. For many vendors, Gruener says, Linux is becoming neutral territory in which to attract new customers. "Customers must decide if Solaris is still a better platform for their needs," Gruener says. "Linux doesn't yet do all that Solaris can, but some customers don't need all Solaris' features, either."

Earlier this week, Sun said it would miss its quarterly financial targets in part because of tough pricing. Wall Street analysts have called for the company to cut jobs and change its strategy. Sales of servers, one of Sun's key items, have slumped in recent years as businesses have cut back on IT spending.