Sun finally makes a big move

Sun is spending some of its cash reserves to bring Storage Tek into its orbit. "This $4.1 billion acquisition is part of an ongoing strategy to respond to customers seeking to rationalize their datacenter purchases--to free up time and dollars to focus on compliance, architectural integration, security and, of course, the bottom line," Sun CEO Scott McNealy said. He also stated that Sun will play the role of an IT industry consolidator, implying that other big deals may be in the works. Sun already has a line of storage products and recently acquired IP rights to Procom Technology's NetFORCE disk-based networked data storage appliances for $50 million. The acquisition fits with Sun's ongoing strategy to become a more complete infrastructure provider, providing sophisticated data centers and lifecycle management "in a box." What else would work well in Sun's orbit?