X

Sun revamps business partner program

The company has increased the incentives for business partners to join SunTone, its seal of approval for Internet businesses that rely on Sun products.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
Sun Microsystems has increased the incentives for business partners to join SunTone, the company's seal of approval for Internet businesses that rely on Sun products.

The SunTone program, unveiled in May 1999, guarantees that products sold by Sun's business partners will work with Sun's products. On Monday, the company expanded the program to make it more appealing to those business partners.

Sun now offers the business partners marketing money, discounts on Sun products and joint sales agreements under which both companies sell the combined products. In addition, the company offers business partners sales incentives.

Sun also began selling its business partners new services to help them back up contracts guaranteeing their products will work as well as promised.

Sun has 12,600 employees in its services group, the Palo Alto, Calif., company said.