Computacenter achieves top Sun accreditation

Computacenter has become one of the first UK systems integrators to receive Sun Microsystems' prestigious Datacenter accreditation.

The accreditation is the highest of its kind for the Solaris operating system and demonstrates Computacenter's expertise in Sun products and its ability to advise customers on what technology best suits their business needs from desktop to datacenter.

"Qualifying for this accreditation is a great achievement for Computacenter and our Sun division," comments Jim Carroll, who heads Computacenter's Sun division. "But more importantly it sends a strong message about our ability to understand our customers' Sun requirements and meet them with the right technology, integrated and supported within their organisations."
To obtain the accreditation, Computacenter had to satisfy a range of Sun criteria, which included putting staff - both technical and business focused - through intensive training and assessment.

Computacenter went well beyond the specified number of qualified staff needed to obtain the accreditation, with 264 people trained at three different levels: Datacenter, Enterprise and Workgroup.

Carroll remarks, "The time investment and the personal commitment from staff needed to make this a success was huge, but it's an investment that we believe is worthwhile and will deliver significant benefit to our customers.

"The accreditation involves the E10000, Sun's flagship server, which is designed and built for the datacenter. If a company is making significant investments in high-end solutions, they want to work with a sales force that really understands the technology and its benefits and with a technical team that knows how to architect, deploy and support these systems. The Datacenter accreditation gives us that credibility both with Sun and our customers."

Sun places a strong emphasis on its partners. Steve Raby, Director of Partner Sales for Sun comments: "Sun needs specialist partners to deliver best-of-breed solutions. It is important that our partners understand thisand work with us to deliver solutions to customers' business problems.

"Computacenter's recognition of the importance of the Datacenter accreditation and its decision to train extra staff is a great example of what partnership truly means and demonstrates real commitment to its customers and its relationship with Sun."