Back with a bang!!

BANGALORE: After two years, during which time the company was all but written off as a spent force, Sun Microsystems enters the market once again with a swagger-this time, in the company of the latest version of old stalwart Solaris OS version 10. The difference-besides the 400-odd innovations on the core technology around the OS-is in the way Sun has made a comeback. It has figured that vision has a place and solutions have theirs. And where enterprise Chief Information Officers are concerned, vision really has little place in their scheme of things.

So, what do we have? A grown up Sun, given to less of visioning and more of brass tacks talking and doing. In Solaris 10, it has tried to address most of the issues that plague enterprises and CIOs in particular--such as high cost of managing multiple licenses and versions, enabling server and storage consolidation, reducing manpower. While almost new features of Solaris 10 have been welcomed, some like Containers and DTrace have reviewers raving. From an enterprise perspective, it is expected to significantly reduce both system and human resources required in the management of the OS.

In the subscription model of pricing, OS is free with only support and services charged for. All of these changes have been made keeping in mind the challenges faced by enterprises at the ground level. In the global markets, it has been received well. The response is not expected to be much different here in India, though India pricing is still awaited.

Among the many promises that Solaris 10 made, one of the few that it is yet to keep is the one around Linux interoperability. According to Glenn A Weinberg, vice president, Operating Platforms Group, Sun Microsystems, "While many have expressed interest, not many are clear about how they intend to deploy it. Sun's stand is that we would rather get feedback from customers on how they might deploy it based on the Pilot before putting down a solution and committing long-term support. But we are committed to allow people to run Linux applications."

Just how well Solaris 10 will take off will be known in the next couple of months. But one thing is clear: Sun has not given up on its N1 and the dream of making computing available as a Utility. At $1 per CPU per hour, Sun has shown that it has in it to deliver computing efficiently, on demand and at a competitive price.