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Consolidation and virtualization, cybersecurity,and green computing top Bill Vass' roster ofopportunities for small-business partners andgovernment projects.Vass, president and chief operating officer atSun Microsystems Federal Inc., also cited open-sourcesoftware, a Sun specialty. "More agenciesare standardizing on open source, he said.Small-business partners who understand thevalue of open source in addition to consolidationand virtualization are especially useful ingovernment work, he said.Reducing operations and maintenance costsis high on government customers' agendas,Vass said. For example, agencies are trying tocut spending for operations and maintenancefrom 80 percent of their budget to 60 percent.Such reductions will let them invest in newprojects, he said.With those objectives in mind, Vass said, smallbusinesses should bring their skills and contractsinto Sun Federal programs. About 93percent of Sun Federal's business goes throughpartners, ranging from giants such as GeneralDynamics Corp. to entrepreneurial firms suchas Dynamic Systems Inc., of Los Angeles andReston, Va."Our preference is to work through partners,"Vass said, adding that the only time SunFederal works directly with an agency is if thereis a request for such a relationship.Sun Federal has about 50 small businesseson its authorized partners roster. The companywants to add more partners that operate at differentlevels, Vass said. Relationships affectthe margin points a partner can get.Variables include the size of the project,whether the partner brought it to Sun and thenature of the alliance ? such as systems integrator,reseller, value-added dealer or someother relationship."We're looking for partners who can deliver[services] as specified in the contract," Vasssaid. "The more they generate demand for us,the better returns they'll get. If they only fulfillorders, which is an important role, too," themargins might be smaller."Sun just put the finishing touches on ourGlobal Sun Partner Advantage program, whichwe are very excited about," Vass said. "The SPAprogram gives partners the flexibility of choice:It provides SPA partners with a variety of focusareas ? servers, storage, software and services? and engagement models, allowing them tofocus on their unique niche."Small businesses are recruited ? via recommendationsand applications on the SunFederal Web site ? at various points during thecontracting process.Prospective partners must join the SunPartner Advantage Program, which assesses andensures their skills, including order fulfillment.It can take a month or longer for Sun toreview and assess a company's qualifications,but "we can accelerate the process for the rightpartner," Vass added. "We invest in them; theyinvest in us," he said. Sun spends time trainingnew partners on Sun products'features and capabilities."We have 12 main solutionsthat we work with partners on, such as service-orientedarchitecture, multilevel security solutions,data center consolidation and virtualization,"Vass said.Tasks for which Sun Federal brings in smallbusinesspartners range from case, financial andgrants management to information technologysecurity, IT infrastructure optimization andgeospatial data management.Other projects include asset management,engineering application development, serverand storage consolidation, identity management,and enterprise computing.Prospective small-business partners shouldcheck with the local managers, Randy Zeweand Lesley Lawrence, for details on the SunPartners program.Vass is enthusiastic about the coming opportunitiesfor small-business teaming."There is so much demand," he said. "We areonly limited by our own resources."