Sun reconnects with baseball league
The Internet arm of Major League Baseball extends its contract with Sun Microsystems for online services in a two-year deal worth $25 million.
Sun will supply the hardware, software and services to MLB Advanced Media, which runs the Web site for the baseball league. Sun has been the primary technology supplier for MLB Advanced Media since the latter's formation in 2001.
MLB Advanced Media stuck with Sun to run its data centers because of the solid technology Sun provided and the flexibility Sun's services division showed, a representative for MLB Advanced Media said Tuesday.
The high-profile Web site, which offers Webcasts, audiocasts, news and statistics, sees a huge amount of traffic, getting 3 million to 4 million visitors per day. It also broadcasts 40,000 hours of live events every year and 15 games a day.
As part of the contract, MLB Advanced Media will open a third data center, which is slated to start operations in 2005.
Sun is supplying its Sun Fire servers, StorEdge storage and a digital asset management system for archiving content.
Earlier this month, MLB Advanced Media also struck a $40 million deal with Microsoft to offer its high-end services on MSN. Microsoft will offer live video and audio of baseball games and other services to its MSN premium subscribers at no extra cost.