Special Features:
SUN MICRO CALLS NEW OFFERINGS KEY PRODUCT
LAUNCH
By Duncan Martell
Computer maker Sun Microsystems
Inc unveiled new storage and server hardware
and announced its first major
software product to make computer data centers
work more efficiently, in what
it called its biggest product launch in years.
Sun introduced a
variant of its Sun Fire server, which holds 12
microprocessors, aimed at the
entry level of the grid enterprise computing
market. It also introduced
entry-level data storage equipment and refreshed
versions of its Sun Fire
12000 and Sun Fire 15000 ultra-high-end servers that
cost $1 million or
more.
Sun's bid to develop software that manages large data centers
reflects an
industry-wide race to make servers much more efficient, ultimately
enabling
companies to spend less on hardware by getting more out of what they
purchase.
Companies want to automate tasks such as provisioning
storage and computer
power by knitting together a network into a single
"virtual" machine rather
than a patchwork of parts.
Sun, which makes
computers that manage networks, calls its effort "N1." Rival
Hewlett-Packard
Co dubs its own "adaptive infrastructure" while International
Business
Machines Corp calls its version "on-demand computing."
"We think this
is a big deal, unfolding over the next 10 years," said Frank
Gillett, an
analyst at market research firm Forrester Research. His firm has
dubbed the
software effort "organic information technology."
Under this scenario,
for example, an administrator could simply assign a
priority to a new task
rather than looking for a specific machine to run it.
Also, it would
mean computing power could move more fluidly between different
tasks. For
instance, e-mail servers could be reassigned to be Web servers if
traffic on a
Web site peaks sharply.
Focus On System, Not Parts
At a
press conference to announce the products, Chairman and Chief
Executive Scott
McNealy said that the computer industry has been too focused
on the individual
components and not on the entire system.
"It's not about buying the
components, it's about buying the system," McNealy
told reporters and analysts
at a San Francisco hotel.
He added that recurring revenue, such as
that from computer services work it
does for customers, will constitute a
larger part of Santa Clara, California-based Sun's revenue going forward as it
rolls out more of its N1 software.
Sun's first N1 product announced is
called N1 Provisioning Server
3.0 Blades Edition. Blade server computers are
stacked in racks next to one
another like books on a shelf, saving space and
cutting costs.
Sun executives said the announcement was aimed at
combating the perception
Sun's products are more expensive than rival
computers using Intel Corp chips
and Microsoft Corp software, sometimes called
Wintel.
"I do believe we have to drive a stronger message that we have
always been a
low-cost producer," said Neil Knox, executive vice president in
Sun's computer
systems business. Knox added that Sun has long sold a low-end
server that
costs about $1,000, with prices moving all the way up to powerful,
refrigerator sized servers costing $1 million or more.
"Sun offers
products at many, many different prices," said Jean Bozman, server
analyst at
market research firm International Data Corp. "The mid-range
products and some
of the entry-level ones are priced higher than Wintel, but
you'll see Sun say
we compete on those price bands."
Sun is also facing incursions from
boxes using Microsoft software and Intel
chips into the higher end of the
server market, where Sun is strong. IDC
considers the high-end of the server
market to be boxes costing $1 million or
more.
The type of data center
management software Sun, IBM and Hewlett-Packard are
working on will represent
a sea change in corporate computing, Gillett said.
"What it ultimately
means is I can buy less hardware, because the hardware
that's already there or
being used is being used more efficiently," Gillett
said. "N1 is important for
Sun to stay in the game with HP and IBM but they
and everybody else will have
to learn to live in a world that doesn't need as
many servers."
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