The Sun Blade 6000 Modular System – Sun’s first blade server to support Intel microprocessors - provides customers with the most versatility of any blade platform. It uses the industry’s highest performing microprocessors from Sun, Intel and AMD, and provides support for Solaris(TM), Windows and Linux operating systems.  Its increased memory capacity and I/O bandwidth makes Sun Blade 6000 the optimal virtualisation platform – supporting large memory configurations at half the cost.  In addition, the new systems have been designed to maximise customer investment by supporting microprocessors with four and eight cores. All this enables the Sun Blade 6000 Modular System to run virtually any enterprise application.James Eagleton, systems product manager for Sun, detailed why this new blade server is particularly relevant for resellers in New Zealand.  Resellers need to be aware of the under-utilised resources looking at server consolidation.  Data server operational costs are increasing rapidly for businesses, but Sun Blade 6000 can handle a much larger I/O capacity.  This new server is a first for the marketplace, and can handle a truly consolidated workplace.  A great opportunity exists for resellers to make money on implementation, management and design services.  This product can be approached as solution to a widely growing industry pain point.  Another opportunity for resellers and the channel as a whole relates to the vast number of customers trying to actively address power and cooling constraints in their data centers, whether to save money or be more eco-friendly.  “ANZ Bank is a perfect example here,” said James.  “They are in the process of making their IT department carbon neutral.  Moving to a blade platform significantly reduces power consumption.  The fact that Sun’s blade server is the leading energy-efficient processor is a big key selling point for customers.”Power and cooling assessments are another great service for resellers to focus on.  The growing trend to “go green” will be a key tipping point in the industry.  Put in a place a plan for customers to assess their carbon footprint.  “It won’t be long,” stated James, “before the cost of powering a server will outweigh the cost of buying a server.”  Over the coming years, acquisition costs will be overtaken by operating costs, and customers are paying more and more attention to their operative costs already.  Sun is leading the way in the development of innovative systems to deliver power and cooling benefits.