Sun Microsystems Inc. in partnership with InTechnology Plc, a data management company headquartered in the United Kingdom, unveiled two new services for the upcoming Sun Grid Storage Utility: Sun Grid Remote Backup and Restore Service (RBR) and Sun Grid Remote File Vault (RFV) for United Kingdom-based customers. Sun Grid RBR provides secure, centralized and remote data backup, offered through usage-based monthly billing. The complementary service, Sun Grid RFV, runs on the Solaris 10 Operating System and enables long-term remote archiving without a formal backup process.

Sun also announced that Virtual Compute Corp. (vCompute), a high-performance computing service provider, has extended its agreement to use over 2 million hours of central processing units (CPUs) on the Sun Grid Compute Utility. In only three weeks, vCompute agreed to purchase and subsequently used its first million CPU hours on the Sun Grid, demonstrating the incredible efficiency and flexibility of the Sun Grid Utility model. Sun Grid helps customers and partners derive immediate benefits from an open, Grid-based computing infrastructure on a utility basis by giving them more choice and control over how they purchase and leverage IT.

The operational and financial implications of losing data can be catastrophic to companies. Yet many organizations still trust the backup and archival of data to a fragmented and often ineffective policy of distributed devices and manual routines. Sun Grid RBR and Sun Grid RFV eliminate the risks and costs of internal backup and archival infrastructure and processes, while providing services that will scale with a customer's unique and evolving storage needs. Additionally, customers pay only for the services they use, receiving monthly statements and access to a portal detailing daily consumption.

"This new model of storage on demand addresses the challenges of limited budgets and dispersed data center staff -- prompting companies in every industry to reexamine data center management," said Stuart Wells, executive vice president utility computing at Sun Microsystems. "We're seeing explosive demand for utility computing from major financial institutions, oil and gas companies like vCompute, and small to medium-sized businesses across industries -- and are working with innovators like InTechnology to ensure we're staying ahead of the incredible industry demand every step of the way. These new product offerings, combined with Sun's recent acquisition of StorageTek, underscore Sun's commitment to data management."

"We are delighted to partner with Sun on this important next step in the Sun Grid utility computing initiative," said Peter Wilkinson, CEO and founder of InTechnology. "Our proven expertise and delivery infrastructure, combined with Sun's strong brand, technical excellence and unquestionable commitment to utility computing will be a compelling proposition to end users wrestling with the challenges of data storage, data protection and data management."

"With Sun Grid, we've thrown open the doors to a new era of utility computing -- and after proving to our customers that we can extend our compute capacity with the Sun Grid, many clients have rushed in to book time," said Edward Hawes, chief executive officer of Virtual Compute Corp. "Our immediate need to scale from 1 million to 2 million CPU hours speaks volumes about the validity of our utility computing model. The new Sun Grid Storage Utility that is being linked to the Sun Grid Compute Utility empowers vCompute to provide more robust business continuity services to our high performance computing customers."

Sun Grid RBR provides centralized backups of desktops, laptops, file servers and applications/database servers ending the delays, risks and high cost of traditional tape and data replication processes. All services are delivered via a secure telecommunications link, ensuring data is regularly copied to a remote data center facility for immediate restoration. Benefits to Sun Grid RBR customers include: secure, data protection; best practice and dedicated backup process; regular updates; and enhanced protection of business critical data.

For customers requiring long-term data archiving, Sun Grid RFV is available as a complementary storage service to Sun Grid RBR or as a standalone service. The service introduces a pay-per-use approach to storing key files at a remote, secure facility, while retaining easy access for restoration. Customers store only what they need, without the costs of running extensive backup processes on a user's system. Sun Grid RFV customers will enjoy: added security; best practice and dedicated file storage service; and redundancy of data.