One thing that
always puzzles me is that if Oracle Solaris boxes are
 so reliable why does a years support on one cost so much more
 (typically 5 to 8 times more) than a years support on an similar spec
 IBM or HP Intel or AMD box? 
 Others have mentioned two probable parts of this
("because it can" and
 "if it's expensive it must be valuable").
 I offer for consideration another possible part: the level of support
 is different.  While I am not familiar with modern support contracts of
 either sort, I speculate that the Oracle support contract specifies
 much tighter constraints on the supporter's performance (response time,
 time to repair, etc), higher penalties if they aren't met, and a wider
 net for what it covers.  (As compared to the other contract, of
 course.)  I do know that, back when I did know a little bit about
 support contracts, that such things had a a substantial effect on the
 price of the contract. 
 Well at least in the UK IBM appears to provide its own
support perhaps
that's a contributing factor...
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