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 In today's market, early stage companies find it challenging to bring highly available and scalable applications to market quickly and cost-effectively. Startup companies are constantly looking for ways to become more efficient with limited resources while at the same time planning for long-term success.
Sun wants to help early stage companies get their business off the ground rapidly and at low cost. It's all about planning for the future, so we're talking to startup customers about how we can further their growth with the vision that open source software, coupled with innovative network technology, will create more economic opportunities for an organisation.
This month, I'd like to highlight a company that joined the programme and are now reaping the benefits. Our customer, Glasses Direct, was founded in 2004 by young entrepreneur Jamie Murray Wells and it has rapidly grown into the world's largest direct seller of custom-made prescription glasses.
Seventy employees work from locations in London and Swindon and it is estimated the company sells a pair of glasses every three minutes. With annual revenue growth over 100 percent, Glasses Direct is making plans to expand operations to the United States. This is a company that needed Web and infrastructure technology during a period of rapid growth to cement its rise into the ranks of leading Internet companies.
So what did they do?
They joined the Sun Startup Essentials Programme! After taking a hard look at their existing IT architecture, Glasses Direct needed to be sure it could support continued growth and expansion. Maintaining high levels of system availability was critical, and the company needed to create a real-time copy of its database rather than relying on overnight backups.
Affordability with Sun Startup Essentials
Glasses Direct migrated its IT architecture from the community software stack to the open software stack running on Sun servers. To meet budgetary requirements, Sun partner NTT Europe Online purchased Sun hardware as part of the Sun Startup Essentials program — and then leased it to Glasses Direct. The architecture, which is hosted by NTT, can facilitate the company's upcoming international debut.
Glasses Direct credits the Sun Startup Essentials program for creating an opportunity it did not think was possible. "Until the Sun Startup Essentials Program came up, I wouldn't have gravitated to Sun because I thought that the hardware was too expensive," says Derek Colvin, head of IT. "But the reality of it is that the Sun Startup Essentials Program really reinforces the fact that Sun makes its services and systems available to all companies — and that small companies can absolutely reap the benefits of its world-class solutions. It's not out of anyone's reach."
Glasses Direct have already seen the benefits of the new architecture: "Administration and development is easier," Colvin said. "Just having everything in one place and knowing that it's supported professionally means that I can sleep at night. We've seen an immediate and demonstrable improvement in reliability. The performance of our overall IT architecture has increased in excess of 300 percent over and above what we previously had. So our customers see us online all of the time, and our site is so much faster. You can't get any better than that."
Our Startup Essentials program gives new companies discounts on award-winning Sun technology, such as x64 systems and storage products, and provides free and open source software. You can get free technical advice straight from Sun experts, discounted training and service, and low subscription rates from Web hosting partners.
If you would like to participate in the startup community or just need some information on the Startup Essentials Programme, do get involved and visit http://uk.sun.com/startupessentials/ or call 08007310658 / email uk-srg2@sun.com.
We look forward to having you on board!
Best regards,
Kim Jones
President and Managing Director
Sun Microsystems U.K. and Ireland
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