Sun announced earlier that it will start using Intel processors in its x86 servers. AMD has had an exclusive since 2005. The first Sun/Xeon machines will come off production lines mid-year. Meanwhile, as Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz puts it, "Intel has anointed Solaris as The Mission Critical Unix for Intel/Xeon"; the two companies will collaborate to "make Solaris absolutely scream on Xeon". This, he adds, is the real news from his point of view.
Jon Stokes from Ars Technica agrees. He says in a "post-GHz-race world", it makes sense for Intel to "beef up its knowledge of and influence on the OS and application layers of the x86 system stack by partnering with whole widget makers" - or companies like Sun and Apple who produce both hardware and software. Jon points out that not long ago, Microsoft, too, reached across the hardware/software dividing line and put together an in-house chip design team.
So... if:
(a) Solaris screams on Xeon, and
(b) IDC and Gartner say that Sun - and therefore Solaris - seems to be gaining market share, and
(c) The enterprise users who have been buying Solaris servers will soon run out of data center space, and
(d) Sun hardware won't be the only destination for Solaris-optimized Xeon chips. Intel will also become a Solaris distributor through its whitebox servers business...
Might it be possible that you'd be called upon to support Solaris servers in your data center in the not to far future? The adoption rate of those Sun/Xeon servers will be worth keeping an eye on.
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