Sun Microsystems announced that it has expanded the Sun Startup Essentials(SM) program into Canada, France and Germany to help early-stage companies in these countries get up-and-running quickly while conserving cash. As part of Sun's ongoing commitment to fostering the global startup community, the company continues to support programs and events around the world, such as hosting the Sun-sponsored Startup Camp(SM) in London this spring.

Canada, France and Germany represent large and growing developer populations with major Internet-based economies, as well as areas that support a robust and increasing number of startup activities. They join an expanding list of startups from China, India, Israel, U.K. and U.S. that currently leverage the resources within the Sun Startup Essentials program. As part of the program's expansion, Sun also hosted startup events in Munich, Paris and Vancouver, B.C., to provide an overview of the program and encourage networking within their communities.

In today's market, early stage companies are challenged to bring highly available and scalable applications to market quickly and cost-effectively. These startup companies are constantly looking for ways to become more efficient with limited resources while at the same time planning for long-term success. Since its inception in 2006, over 1,500 early-stage companies have applied to the Sun Startup Essentials program. Approved startups are eligible to receive program member benefits that improve their time to market, maximize IT efficiencies and cut costs. The program offers startups deep discounts on a range of Sun's industry-leading technologies and services and the ability to subscribe to Web hosting services from Sun partners at discounted rates. With the industry-leading Solaris(TM) Operating System (OS), a range of innovative technologies and flexible, cost-effective systems, Sun is one of the premier choices for startups to grow their businesses.

"With our commitment to building communities, Sun is able to share valuable expertise and offer global startups free software, architectural support, and significantly discounted hardware through the Sun Startup Essentials program," said Juan Carlos Soto, VP of Global Market Development at Sun Microsystems. "By further expanding the program, we're reaching leading markets that adopt and adapt new technology rapidly and enabling startups to get to market more quickly and economically."

Startup Camp Goes Global
Sun is committed to facilitating and building startup communities where entrepreneurial opportunities are burgeoning. In order to encourage entrepreneurs to make connections with and learn from other startups, venture capitalists, and other vendors providing services and products, Sun will host the Startup Camp event in London on March 7-8, 2008. Building on the success of three previous Startup Camps held in San Francisco and New York, the event will continue to be a face-to-face, collaborative “unconference” with the agenda determined on-site during the event. The first day of Startup Camp features Startup University; a session that provides an opportunity for attendees to learn about various topics in an educational format from knowledgeable companies and speakers. Startup Camp will also feature Speed Geeking, a "Best Startup Contest," which provides startups a chance to hone their business pitch through a series of five minute sessions, speed-dating style. More information is available at http://startupcamp.org/

About Sun Startup Essentials
The Sun Startup Essentials program helps eligible startup companies jumpstart and accelerate the development cycle by allowing them to purchase discounted Sun products and services, including the award-winning Sun Fire(TM) x64 servers and Sun Fire servers with CoolThreads(TM) technology. Program members can also work with Sun worldwide hosting partners such as Layered Technologies, NaviSite, and NTT Europe Online to rent discounted Web hosting infrastructure based on Sun technologies. In addition to offering products and services to eligible startup companies, Sun is also offering free technical advice via email and access to free software, such as Apache, MySQL(TM) and Perl optimized for Solaris (SAMP), Ruby on Rails and the Sun Java(TM) Enterprise System stack, all optimized to run on the open source Solaris OS.

To join the program or see the complete listing of countries in which the program is available, go to www.sun.com/startup.

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