Mumbia: Datamatics Ltd has crossed yet another milestone as Sun Microsystems selected it for a significant programme to help solve the sudden crisis faced by hundreds of users due to the shutting down of Hewlett Packard's (HP) Alpha/Tru 64 server.

Sun has launched an initiative targeting the 400,000 erstwhile HP Alpha/Tru 64 users and migrate them to its platform. Under the "Sun HP Away" migration programme, Datamatics has been identified as a solutions provider. The catalyst for this migration was created when HP announced the end of life for the estimated 400,000 Alpha/Tru64 installed systems.

"Once a customer selects a server platform they don't typically move without a compelling reason," said Larry Singer, Sun's senior vice president, global market strategies. "Alpha/Tru64 customers however, are being forced to move, and we're adding new resources to make a move to Sun easy. In a single quarter, we've validated our strategy by moving a significant number of HP customers onto Sun platforms, and we plan to build on this success."

Commenting on the new global task, Datamatics managing director Rahul Kanodia said: "This is a very significant development for us and is an extension of the relationship that we have been enjoying with Sun. We hope to aim about 15 percent to 20 percent of the clientele affected by the end of Alpha server with revenue ranging from half a million USD to 5 million USD."

Datamatics will provide tools to facilitate almost effortless migration.
Although Sun is offering the HP Away migration program to all Alpha/Tru64 customers, the company sees the most significant opportunities in five specific vertical industries: telecommunications, life sciences, utilities, education, and city and state government. Sun is working with its migration solution providers like Datamatics to provide automated migration tools and professional services to convert both industry standard and customized applications to a Solaris platform or Linux environment.

To date, over 50 customers have already opted to migrate from HP's AlphaServer/Tru64 to Sun, an announcement by Sun said adding that the HP Away program, initially only available in the U.S., has been extended to Europe, with plans to expand to the rest of the world by the end of 2003.