HP has Sun in its sights [email protected] Hewlett-Packard (HP) has vowed to continue targeting Sun's customers, following claims that it generated a $200m turnover in the first half of this year at its rivals' expense. HP told CRN the turnover st

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has vowed to continue targeting Sun's customers

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has vowed to continue targeting Sun’s customers, following claims that it generated a $200m turnover in the first half of this year at its rivals’ expense.

HP told CRN the turnover stemmed from sales into 150 Sun customer accounts, which also contributed to a near doubling of HP’s turnover figures compared with the same period last year.

John King, enterprise server manager at HP, said the sales have principally been gained in its server and storage divisions. “We offer assurances and a clear migration path to customers feeling insecure about Sun, and that can only be a good thing for our channel partners.

“Inconsistencies in Sun’s offerings have contributed to these sales. Last year Sun made strong growth assertions, but it has so far not backed-up its comments. This will increase further because Sun is making noise rather than sales,” he said.

Michael Avis, marketing manager at Sun UK, said: “We see no evidence of HP’s erosion of our customers. HP doesn’t worry Sun as a competitor.”

Last week it also announced new lines to its data protection and archiving divisions, including ProLiant servers designed to backup at fixed intervals, and a StorageWorks File Migration agent designed to automate enterprise Window file server environments.

David Smith, enterprise product marketing manager at HP, said: “The jigsaw puzzle is coming together to make it easier for resellers to integrate and sell a complete HP solution at a variety of price points.”

Earlier this year Sun reported a year-over-year turnover decrease of 4.3 per cent to $2.98bn for its second quarter ended 30 June 2005. The vendor also recorded net profit of $121m, down from $783m last year. The quarter also ended Sun’s fiscal year in which turnover declined one per cent to $11.07bn.

Martin Vessey, UK country manager at Access Distribution, a Sun partner, said: “HP is using figures to bamboozle customers. Most finance companies buy from a mix of HP,

Sun and IBM so the figures can be skewed by a customer buying from all three vendors. In the last six months we haven’t experienced a great loss to HP.”