Can Sun swipe IBM's mainframe mantle?

Sun Microsystems believes it can steal IBM's mainframe customers with its newly launched high-end server.

The Sun Fire12k is positioned between Sun's 6800 and Sun Fire 15k servers. But the company claims its capabilities will attract Big Blue's mainframe customers.

Ian Meakin, UK product marketing manager Computer Systems at Sun, said IBM's monopoly of the mainframe market needs to be addressed. This new Sun server, he claims, will provide an alternative for customers.

According to Sun, there are already IBM mainframe rehosting projects underway, including one with retailer Littlewoods.

He also argued that in the last quarter mainframe prices have reached their most expensive ever. He told silicon.com: "IBM is creaming it by putting its prices up. This is the first time ever customers can buy mainframe capability for less than $1m."

But these claims have been flatly dismissed by IBM. Big Blue is not convinced that large customers such as leading banks will be interested in the Sun Fire 12k as a mainframe alternative.

Peter Norris, eserver consultant at IBM Europe, said only companies with very small mainframes and a limited set of software will be likely candidates for the shift to Sun.

He also questioned Sun's ability to migrate customers claiming Sun's rehosting technology can only do "half the job". He told silicon.com: "Moving from IBM to Sun Solaris is a complex and difficult conversion exercise. All the middleware is different - it's a completely different world."

IBM's argument is it is always striving to reduce the total cost of ownership of mainframe. Norris said: "Sun is concentrating on the price of the tin. In the full analysis, Sun technology is very expensive. The $1m price tag is not the fully configured cost. $2-3m is more realistic."

Norris concluded: "I have a long list of people coming across to IBM - including the New York Stock Exchange and Telia." He is adamant that no large mainframe IBM customers will make the move to Sun.