Sun Microsystems announced two new offerings that will expand customer choice by providing users with access to Sun's innovative open source software running on the Amazon Web Services platform. Sun's OpenSolaris Operating System (OS) will be available on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a Web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud and changes the economics of computing by allowing customers to pay only for the infrastructure software services and capacity that they actually use. Additionally, Sun is adding premium technical support for its MySQL database running on Linux and Amazon EC2 to its global support and services offerings.

With this announcement, Amazon EC2 customers now have access to MySQL premium technical support, as well as key features of OpenSolaris, such as ZFS and Dynamic Tracing (DTrace). OpenSolaris ZFS delivers instant roll-back and continual check-summing capabilities that enable users to test their ideas risk free as their work is protected. OpenSolaris also includes the Image Packaging System (IPS) which increases installation speed and accuracy by providing better control of applications and dependencies, and offers easy-to-use systems management. OpenSolaris delivers an unrivaled development and deployment environment offering the right mix of rapid innovation and platform stability.

"Support for OpenSolaris and MySQL on Amazon EC2 expands the reach and convenience for developers who want to quickly deploy their applications on the Web by taking advantage of Amazon Web Services," said Rich Green, executive, vice president of Software, Sun Microsystems. "Sun aims to continue to offer additional options to use and deploy our open source platforms - covering the spectrum from small home-grown installations through to on-site data centers and hosted environments such as Amazon EC2."

With this new offering, developers, enterprises, startups and students have enhanced options and support for rapid development and fast Web deployment on a Web-scale compute infrastructure, with capacity-on-demand. Amazon EC2 helps businesses and developers cost-effectively build, test, troubleshoot and deploy their highly-scalable applications. To learn more about Sun's product support for Amazon EC2, visit www.sun.com/amazon and www.mysql.com/ec2

"Amazon EC2 customers want access to unlimited computing power in a cost-effective manner," said Adam Selipsky, vice president, Product Management and Developer Relations, Amazon Web Services. "With OpenSolaris and MySQL technical support now available on EC2, developers and IT staff gain powerful platform and database options for building scalable and reliable applications on Amazon's cloud computing platform."

"As longtime users of Solaris at MLB.com, we're looking forward to the new possibilities introduced via the ability to run our existing applications and processes with OpenSolaris on EC2," said Justin Shaffer, senior vice president, New Media, MLB.com. "We've been involved with testing OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2, and are continuing to research opportunities to take advantage of the infrastructure to meet our scaling requirements."

Industry Software Vendors Support OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2
A select group of software vendors are already offering their solutions via Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) for OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2, including GigaSpaces, Rightscale, Thoughtworks and Zmanda. Sun is also making available the GlassFish application server. OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 is available for no additional charge. Customers pay only for Amazon EC2 usage, which starts at $0.10 per CPU-hour.

OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 beta is currently available by invitation only. To request an invitation to join the program, visit www.sun.com/amazon. Free technical support for OpenSolaris on Amazon EC2 beta participants is provided by Sun and Amazon EC2 support is provided by Amazon Web Services.

MySQL Production Support for Amazon EC2
MySQL is a database running on Amazon EC2 today, and a key component of the popular open source LAMP software stack. In response to customer demand, Sun is offering MySQL production support for Amazon EC2 users as part of a premium MySQL Enterprise subscription. Now, Web developers and IT organizations can cost-effectively deliver database driven Web-scale computing in the "cloud" - fully supported by the MySQL database experts at Sun with 24x7 production support and professional service.

This new offering enables users to scale up and out by leveraging MySQL replication on Amazon EC2, and ensures the MySQL database is optimized for Amazon EC2. It also reduces total cost of ownership by eliminating licensing costs, as well as hardware and storage maintenance fees. For supported MySQL platforms, tiered pricing and other information, visit www.mysql.com/ec2.

"Running MySQL on Amazon EC2 has allowed our business to comfortably 'Pay-as-we-Grow,'" said Carl Mercier, founder and CEO, Defensio. "Commercial Web services like ours can really take advantage of Amazon EC2's cost-effective scalability now backed by the skilled advice and peace-of-mind of Sun's MySQL database experts."

For more information on Sun Microsystems contact Cate Hanley, Cate.Hanley@bitepr.com at Bite Communications.