IBM, Sun Seal Server Partnership

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tech titans IBM (IBM) and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) are betting that they stand a better chance of boosting sales as partners rather than rivals.

The companies announced on Thursday that Sun's Solaris operating system will be immediately available to run applications on IBM's low-end servers. Sun's Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz billed the deal as a "tectonic shift in the market landscape" that will introduce products from each company to a broader range of clients.

Users of IBM servers will now be able to choose Solaris as their operating system over IBM's homegrown product, called AIX. The deal follows similar moves IBM has made to open its servers up to an array of popular operating systems, including Microsoft's (MSFT) Windows and Novell's (NOVL) Unix operating system.

"Solaris is a wonderful addition to what we already have," said Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president and group executive in IBM hardware's division, during the conference. "This shows our commitment to offer clients a choice."

The deal could potentially make IBM's servers more valuable to customers by letting them run more applications and handle more data with the IBM gear they already have, or which they plan to purchase.

Within the past two years, Sun has granted roughly 10 million Solaris licenses, according to CEO Schwartz. This opens up a "huge untapped field that IBM can now exploit," said Bob Djurdjevic of Annex Research.