Sun shines anew in utility computing

BANGALORE: Sun Microsystems, the global hardware and software major, has big plans for its Solaris 10 operating system. Working on an innovative subscription model, Sun believes that Solaris 10 will aid it in regaining the glory of the boom days. And the company looks at India, not just as a development hub, but also as an important market in its strategic recovery path. On a visit to Bangalore, Glenn Weinberg, Vice President, Operating Platforms Group, spoke on Sun's broad plans for Solaris 10 and further with Sathya Mithra Ashok and Latha Chandradeep of CIOL.

Excerpts from the interview.

How has Solaris 10 put Sun back on the global IT map and how does the company plan to work on its present advantage?

Solaris 10 has changed a lot of perceptions about Sun and has got us into the market. Our partnership with AMD and their successful Opteron products has also helped us back. It has established us in both the high and low cost computing spaces. The next generation of Opteron systems, which will be later this year, will really bring innovation to the low cost space. We will also be broadening our product line over the next couple of years.

We have also constantly invested in technology on the SPARC side where we have an agreement with Fujitsu. Later this year, you will see our chip, Niagara, which will have eight cores and it will require much less power than many others. And Solaris 10 is at the heart of it.

The notion of computing is changing. It will soon become a utility, just like electricity. Our $1 per CPU per hour takes enterprises one step in that direction by making access to resources over the network that much easier.

Linux interoperability, code named Project Janus, has been promised on Solaris for quite some time now. But, we are yet to see any on the ground progress.

We found that the reactions from our customers can vary. Sun is collecting feedback through a preview of the interoperability, which has been made available to certain customers to understand what they need from the Linux element. Sun does not want to step into long-term commitment and support without knowing first how the entire environment will work. Specifics for the full commitment will be worked out following the pilot. I would not like at this point in time to commit on a timeline of when full Linux interoperability will be will be made available.

How have customers received the subscription model of Solaris 10 globally? What have been the reactions in India and what changes have been made in the pricing here?

Sun decided as a strategy to go for the subscription model for Solaris 10 where customers can pay as per their use for support and services. The initial feedback for it has been very good. In India, it has been in trial with a few customers and there has been a lot of good and positive feedback on technical features. As for price, we should be out with it in another two months' time.

When will a buildable version of OpenSolaris be made available? How would you respond to fears that Sun would tend to control the development of the open source version of the operating system?

I am sure that we can bring out something by next month. The buildable source will have the core elements of the kernel. We have already brought out Dtrace and the source will have most of the other features necessary to build on. That being said, not all components of the core will be released immediately and some of them, like device driver codes, will be worked out eventually.

With opening the code we are going to let go of a lot things. We will be taking in submissions and putting together a contribution list as well. We would like to guide the development along the core values that has run Sun for so long including sticking to high standards and high security among others. But, we are very flexible about and the fact that, three out of the five members of the OpenSolaris board are not Sun members should be testimony enough to it.

Has Sun done away with the N1 concept completely?

N1 involves a grand vision. But, as we worked with customers, we realized that they needed more short-term solutions. And that is what Sun is addressing now and most of our products are geared towards this need. In fact, there will be more product announcements in the management space in the next couple of months.