Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA) today announced a significant new version of Sun VirtualBox(TM), its high performance, cross-platform virtualization software. VirtualBox 3.1 introduces the virtualization industry's first “Teleportation” capability, allowing running virtual machines to be moved, uninterrupted between disparate hosts – including those on different operating systems, different classes of computer (e.g. server to client) and even different CPUs (e.g. Intel to AMD). To download the freely available Sun VirtualBox software, visit: http://www.sun.com/software/products/virtualbox/get.jsp.

“Today's enterprises expect to deliver a 24/7, always available, computing service. The ability to teleport running virtual machines from one computer to another allows system administrators to perform essential maintenance with zero downtime of their IT systems. As a cross-platform hypervisor, VirtualBox allows customers to easily evaluate and deploy virtualized systems, using their existing x86 hardware, operating systems and skillsets,” said Jim McHugh, vice president Datacenter Software marketing at Sun. “The relentless progress of VirtualBox, in terms of product innovation, as well as adoption numbers and speed and frequency of releases, shows Sun's commitment and investment in pervasive virtualization from the desktop to the datacenter.”

By adding Teleportation and significant performance increases to its already impressive SMP and large workload capabilities, VirtualBox 3.1 now exhibits a full complement of enterprise hypervisor features. Teleportation helps virtual machines achieve high availability. When physical hardware needs to be taken down, the virtual workload can simply be teleported to another physical host. VirtualBox 3.1 also improves execution speed, with optimized memory handling delivering performance increases of 30% over the previous VirtualBox release; network performance, delivering increased throughput, while reducing CPU cycles, through a new high-speed, paravirtualized network driver; and display performance via a new 2D Video Acceleration feature for Windows guests. In addition, VirtualBox 3.1 offers new more powerful snapshotting features that help administrators move a virtual machine back or forward in time to any arbitrary snapshot state.

“Our customers expect that service downtimes are as short as possible,” said Andre Apelt, consultant at the German credativ GmbH. “Teleporting the virtual machines from one computer to another, steps in here as an outstanding helpful feature: it enables us to have zero downtime during essential maintenance.”

A key component of Sun's industry-leading desktop-to-datacenter virtualization portfolio, VirtualBox is open source software and hugely popular: surpassing 20 million downloads worldwide since October 2007, with in excess of 40,000 downloads a day. A mere 50 megabyte download, VirtualBox software is incredibly compact and efficient and installs in just a few minutes.

Pricing and Availability

VirtualBox software is free of charge for personal use. For wider deployments within an organization, enterprise licenses or subscriptions are also available, starting at $30 (USD) per user per year, which includes 24/7 premium support from Sun's technical team. Discounts are available based on volume. To sign up for an enterprise support subscription, visit: http://www.sun.com/software/products/virtualbox/get.jsp. For partners wishing to redistribute the VirtualBox technology as part of their own solution, Sun offers a comprehensive OEM licensing program.

Sun's Comprehensive Virtualization Products and Services

Sun offers a complete desktop-to-datacenter virtualization product and services portfolio, which includes solutions and services for both the management and virtualization of operating systems, servers, storage, networking, desktops and applications. With proven virtualization service expertise, Sun helps customers deploy new services faster, maximize the utilization of system resources, and more easily monitor and manage virtualized environments. Sun's end-to-end virtualization services help enterprises scale their business while improving efficiency and transforming their IT environment into a dynamic datacenter. For more information: http://www.sun.com/virtualization.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer(TM)" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at:

http://sun.com.

* All prices quoted are in U.S. Dollars.

Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, VirtualBox and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Intel is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. AMD is a trademark or registered trademark of Advanced Micro Devices.