SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- At its Network Computing '04Q4 (NC04Q4) launch today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) announced the Sun(TM) Secure Application Switch - N2000 Series. The application switch, based on technology acquired from Nauticus Networks in January 2004, enables customers to dramatically improve the availability, performance and security of distributed network applications.

Today's announcement reflects Sun's strategy of delivering complete network computing solutions with best-in-class components for distributed network applications featuring a tight integration of microprocessor, operating system, high-speed backplane and content switching. The Sun Secure Application Switch - N2000 Series solves the cost and complexity challenges faced by enterprises, service providers and governments, delivering mission-critical network and security services to the data center.

"Sun is addressing the real-time system availability, security and high performance needs of heterogeneous data center environments more comprehensively than any other vendor," said Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems, Inc. "IT departments are working to lower TCO by consolidating costly, specialized networking and security equipment. Couple that trend with our servers, the Solaris(TM) OS, and now the Sun Secure Application Switch - N2000 Series, and we simply out-class competitors by providing the highest-performance, most secure platform for cross-enterprise application delivery."

Similar to the virtualization capabilities found in the Solaris 10 Containers and high-end Sun Fire(TM) servers, the Sun Secure Application Switch - N2000 Series delivers dynamic network resource virtualization to help cut the costs of dedicated, redundant, under-utilized systems infrastructure. With these complementary virtualization technologies in place, customers can deploy critical new business application strategies, such as application isolation and per-application security policies.

"As enterprises continue to horizontally scale out their data centers, they are increasingly embracing network intelligence in order to more effectively manage application-level performance and security," said Lucinda Borovick, analyst, IDC. "Sun has clearly recognized this trend. With the combined dynamic virtualization and security features in Solaris and the Sun Secure Application Switch - N2000 Series, Sun has a compelling solution."

Sun Microsystems Inc.