Superior price/performance and product quality are not the only reasons why most vendors in the library automation industry are bidding Sun servers. A survey of 356 value-added retailers by CRN a trade publication, determined that Sun and Hewlett-Packard were virtually tied for price/performance and product quality, and substantially better than IBM for price/performance but Sun was ranked substantially higher for profitability and profit margins: 5.3 on a scale of 7 versus 4.8 each for Hewlett-Packard and IBM. The profit margins on Sun platforms is particularly good on the larger servers, models numbered 3000 through 6500.
When negotiating a contract for a system, keep in mind the vendor has a little more margin on a system configured on a Sun platform than on one with HP or IBM and, therefore, may be able to offer a better deal on that platform.