Sun Digs in at the Data Center

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Sun Digs in at the Data Center
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By Rawlson O’Neil King
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This story appeared in the July/August 2004 issue of Web Host Industry Review magazine. Click here to subscribe for free.
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August 6, 2004 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY
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REVIEW) — Sun Microsystems recently began the process of diversifying
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its product and service portfolio, in order to fortify its position in
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the data center and entice new data center customers.
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The company announced plans to release
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source code from its Solaris operating system under an open-source
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license. The move would allow developers to customize Solaris for
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specific corporate applications, and could potentially allow service
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providers to modify the operating system and even release enhanced
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versions specifically for Web hosting and data warehousing.
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Sun has yet to release a timetable for
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the arrival of an open-source version, but we can assume a long wait.
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The company will no doubt encounter many legal and technical
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difficulties concerning the software’s release, and will have to work
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to ensure that all code offered is Sun’s own intellectual property and
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not contributed by its big name clients.
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Traditionally, Sun has updated the
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operating system on a quarterly basis, ensuring that every new feature
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is quality tested. It will now have to accommodate ad hoc developer
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additions into that product evaluation cycle.
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The firm, however, is determined to make
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moves to enhance its business. Sun has lost a significant volume of
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sales to Linux servers running on inexpensive Intel-based systems.
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Linux server shipments grew by 57 percent year-over-year in the first
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quarter of 2004, while sales of Unix servers declined by three percent
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during that time, according to industry research firm IDC.
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Unix systems, primarily IBM’s AIX, HP-UX
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and Solaris, all have lost ground to Linux and Windows, the most
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popular options presently offered to and by hosting providers.
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Approximately 866,000 Unix operating systems shipped worldwide in 2000.
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That number declined to 622,000 in 2002 and IDC believes it continued
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to decline in 2003.
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Those in the hosting industry know that
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the open-source, Unix-type operating systems, such as Linux and
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OpenBSD, have been more popular due to their low cost, ease of
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customization and standardization.
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While many large enterprises use Solaris to consolidate their server
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infrastructures, service providers make their money by activating many
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servers on their networks. The lowered cost of an open-source Sun
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operating system might be more inviting to these users and make the
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software’s wider use by service providers a more realistic possibility,
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as the open-source model would allow more Solaris machines to be
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deployed at a cheaper cost.
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In the industry’s early days, Solaris was
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an option provided by many hosting companies, due to the lack of
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low-cost options. By making its OS more accessible from a price
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perspective, Sun is attempting to resuscitate its operating system,
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creating a more affordable and viable option for the hosting and
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enterprise data center.
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Because analysts remain skeptical that an
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open-source Solaris would have any major impact on Fortune 500
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customers, who require support and product stability from Sun, we can
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assume that the new model will mainly benefit developers and service
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providers, who can cheaply use the OS to their advantage.
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While an open-source Solaris project
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remains on the horizon, the company is also vying to build its share of
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the data center marketplace by introducing a suite of technologies and
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solutions, entitled N1 Grid that will help make it easier for large
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companies to deploy and manage enterprise grids and resources to
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deliver network services.
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Grid computing enables the virtualization
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of distributed computing and data resources such as processing, network
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bandwidth and storage capacity to create a single integrated system,
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granting users and applications seamless access to vast IT
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capabilities. It brings together heterogeneous resources and allocates
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them efficiently to applications, within the enterprise and beyond.
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Using such technology, corporations can make full use of computers that
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would normally remain dormant across departments or entire geographical
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regions.
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Under the grid model, computing resources
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in data centers never need to remain idle, while other resources
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experience high demand. Using Sun’s new grid solution for data centers,
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businesses can create balanced demand for computing resources across
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the entire enterprise, reduce costs, increase product quality and
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innovation and speed products to market due to their enhanced computing
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capacity.
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The solutions also allow enterprises to
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monitor and select the optimal usage of computer resources on most
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commercial operating systems and platforms, and incorporate accounting
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and reporting features that can generate usage reports per department,
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by project, by user, or by host, to make sure that computer resources
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match business needs.
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Sun’s new technologies are pretty
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convincing evidence that the company intends to dig in its heels in the
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data center space. The decision to open-source Solaris, especially,
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should open Sun’s data center technologies to new horizons, giving
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hosting firms more control over the OS, and bringing some fresh appeal
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to the company’s long-standing offerings.
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