In a world in which technology choices can make or break an organization's ability to compete, Sun's suite of consulting services rapidly closes the gap between new technology adoption and business results. Sun’s consulting services accelerate the realization of important business goals through the rapid and seamless deployment of Sun's innovative products and technologies. By leveraging Sun's expertise, new servers can be brought into production quickly with predictable results for reliability and availability. Using this expertise can also help IT staff remain focused on strategic priorities rather than non-core activities such as deploying IT infrastructure components.
The Sun consulting services portfolio consists of services to help enterprises reduce technology adoption risk and optimize investments in Sun hardware and software products. These services not only help relieve IT staff from non-strategic tasks, but also provide a foundation for enhanced system stability and performance. Table 5-1 includes descriptions of some of the services offered by Sun Services and its partners.
Table 5-1. Sun’s suite of consulting services
Sun Service Offering Description
Sun Operations Capabilities Assessment (OCA)
Service The Sun Operations Capabilities Assessment
Service benchmarks an organization’s ability to efficiently manage internal IT operations.
Well defined criteria and metrics are used to assess the capabilities of people, process and tools. This service can include a complete review of the IT environment or a focused assessment concentrating on specific critical areas.
Sun Enterprise Installation Services (EIS) Sun Enterprise Installation Service offers fast, basic server set up by experienced Sun engineers. Standardized installation methodologies are applied based on Sun's best practices to ensure systems are properly configured and that the latest patches and updates are installed so systems will run at an optimal level right from the start.
Solaris 10 OS Upgrade Service The Solaris 10 upgrade service facilitates the automated, rapid upgrade of existing SPARC and/or x86-based platforms running a previous version of the Solaris OS (7, 8 or 9) to the newly released Solaris 10 OS. By creating a dual boot environment that supports both the old version of the OS and Solaris 10, this service preserves the features and functionality of the current deployment (same hardware, same software stack) by replacing just the operating system and allows the administrator to effortlessly switch between versions of the OS.
Sun i-Runbook Service The Sun i-Runbook Service includes the compilation and set up of a customized, web-based central repository of streamlined technical “how to” information based upon Sun preferred practices and IT processes. The service aims to facilitate more efficient datacenter management, fewer incidences of error, faster problem-resolution, widespread adoption of preferred practices, and increased staff technical knowledge.
Solaris Cluster Implementation Service (CIS) Solaris Cluster Implementation Service helps organizations take full advantage of Sun Cluster software by designing and testing Sun Cluster environments to meet
high-availability requirements. By using this service, organizations can deploy cluster implementations with confidence, knowing the solution has been tested and verified to meet specific requirements.
Sun Dynamic Infrastructure Suite The Sun Dynamic Infrastructure Suite of Services helps organizations respond quickly to changes in market demand by facilitating creation of a flexible, efficient, and secure IT infrastructure. As a result, organizations can add, retire, or expand business services up to 80 percent faster, without new systems overhead.
Sun Eco Services Suite The Sun Eco Services Suite helps
organizations reduce datacenter operation costs and maximize efficiency through a technical evaluation of energy usage, cooling capacity, air distribution, and other
environmental factors that can affect both operational costs and reliable service. Sun consultants establish a baseline for existing conditions, identify areas for improvement, and provide plans for optimizing energy usage, cooling and general environmental conditions.
Sun Virtualization Services Sun Virtualization Services help organizations identify ways to reduce costs and optimize resources, and recommend an appropriate mix of virtualization technology and IT processes to achieve those goals. By taking advantage of Sun's virtualization expertise, it's possible to reduce IT costs by up to
$2M (US) per year, achieve up to 99.99 percent availability, improve utilization by as much as 80 percent, and simplify
infrastructure management.a
Sun Application Readiness Services (ARS) Sun Application Readiness Service helps ensure that a server environment is correctly designed and application-ready prior to deployment. Well-designed server
environments help to support faster system implementation, prevent unnecessary downtime, and reduce the risk of system configuration errors.
Sun Reference Implementation Service for
Data Centers (RISDC) Sun Reference Implementation Service for Data Centers provides services to safely and reliably build, test, and implement datacenter configurations. These Reference Implementations are proven configurations comprised of a flexible combination of Sun servers, Sun storage, Sun Java Enterprise System, the Solaris OS and other software and may also include Local Area Network (LAN) and Storage Area Network (SAN) infrastructure.
Sun Performance Analysis and Capacity
Planning Services Sun Performance Analysis & Capacity Planning Service evaluates an organization's server environment to determine if current assets are sufficient to meet expected growth and business needs, whether additional hardware will be required, or if there are opportunities to consolidate workloads from old or under-used servers.
Sun Service Offering Description