HP steps up drive to nab Sun customers

Vendor partners with Microsoft, Red Hat and Novell to improve migration incentive programme

Servers with a smile: HP is hoping to tempt even more Sun customers to change allegiance

Hardware giant HP has enlisted the help of vendors Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat to help it continue taking customers from rival Sun Microsystems.

In the 12 months to the end of October, HP claims to have nabbed about one customer a day worldwide from Sun. To help entice them, the vendor launched HP Complete Care over the summer, offering Sun customers a package of freebies and special offers.

The programme has now been bolstered by the involvement of software vendors Microsoft, Novell and Red Hat as partners. Complete Care now allows channel partners to offer end users half-price SUSE Linux Enterprise training and up to 25 per cent off Red Hat's Global Training offering. A new Migration Competency Centre in Grenoble has also been introduced.

The vendor partnerships will also allow customers to pick from a wider range of operating systems to run on HP's server platforms. These include Microsoft Windows Server, Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat's Enterprise Linux offering, as well as Sun's Solaris operating system.

One end user to make the switch recently is Mexican construction giant ICA Fluor. The firm's IT manager, Gregorio Pirez, was effusive in his praise.

“HP’s support and technical expertise during the migration was critical, ensuring us a seamless transition that we anticipate will save us nearly $1m (£0.61m) in cumulative IT costs over three years,” he said.