Including the Thumper technology in Sun's future plans "calls into question some of Sun's other storage products, which are based upon proprietary technology," McGuckin said. Those proprietary storage technologies "are going to get more scrutiny and perhaps cut," he said.

"What we're telling clients is any road map dependencies that they have, they should get written commitments from Sun," McGuckin said.

Schwartz took leadership of the company on the same day it posted a fiscal third-quarter loss of $217 million. Despite the loss, Sun officials expressed optimism about the future, pointing to a 21 percent increase in revenue during the same period, to US$3.2 billion. The acquisition of Storage Technology Corp. last August helped to boost revenue in the quarter.

Analysts had expected substantial layoffs, though Schwartz had said in April that the company may only need some "pruning."

"Customers can expect some consolidation in their sales force, and they are going to find it harder and harder to get a specialist," predicted Susan Aldrich, an analyst at Patricia Seybold Group in Boston.