Computing competitors IBM, Sun plan collaboration

BOSTON -- Sun's chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, called it a "comprehensive relationship" that "represents a tectonic shift in the market landscape."

The collaboration announced Thursday will enable Sun's Solaris operating system to run on IBM servers. That means customers using Sun servers can switch to IBM hardware without having to rewrite programs.

At first this will be possible on IBM's "x" series of servers, which also run Microsof's Windows or the open-source Linux system. But eventually IBM hopes to bring Solaris to mainframe computers, the big multitasking machines that have been one of the company's core profit centers for decades.

IBM has been expanding the kinds of programs that can run on mainframes to encourage customers to consolidate multiple servers onto these bigger machines as a cost-saving move.

These steps threaten to take Sun servers out of action in favor of IBM machines. But Sun can gain from this partnership by collecting Solaris subscriptions and service revenue from customers who run that operating system on IBM hardware. Otherwise, Sun risked losing customers entirely to IBM.

"Our view is when you make your products available on other people's platforms, you just meet more customers, which just gives you more opportunities," Schwartz said.