Since I listened to the Webcast and wasn't able to be at the conference
in person, I missed out on all the customary press conference goodies,
which is usually why I usually attend these things in the first place.
The Web may be convenient, but it's still not the same thing as being
there. Maybe since I gave him his headline, Scott'll send me a doughnut.
Besides the competition-crushing rhetoric, the conference focused on
what I see as an exciting announcement that may have a significant
impact on e-businesses of all sizes, from the enterprise down to the Mom
'n Pop Corner Internet Store. Sun's new LX50 is an x86 system that runs
your choice of Linux or Solaris, and comes complete with a boatload of
Sun and open source software.
What's interesting about this announcement is that several years ago,
Sun declared that 32-bit computing was dead, and they went on to focus
on (quite successfully, I may add) their 64-bit Sparc platform. While
they've done well on their 64-bit architecture, Sun's forecast about the
demise of the 32-bit architecture wasn't exactly spot-on.
Sun's not changing its strategy, just adding onto it. Their core
competency remains, in McNealy's own words, to provide a "Big Friggin'
Webtone Switch" infrastructure. I don't think it says that in any of the
marketing brochures, but that's what he called it. Nonetheless, the x86
still represents a marketing opportunity for Sun, and a low-cost
platform opportunity for the enterprise. There are still millions of x86
servers out there, and still millions more being shipped. A very small
percentage of them, however, run Linux, or even Solaris. But despite
Bill Gates' best efforts, x86 and Windows is not a given, and never will
be.
The LX50 compares favorably in price to other x86 boxes when the entire
system is added together. An x86 box is, for the most part, a commodity
item, and Sun readily admits that. It didn't used to be that way, and I
remember working on an IBM PC with a 10-megabyte hard drive that cost
about five grand. It was a good piece of equipment, and I wouldn't have
considered buying one that some small start-up manufactured in the
founder's garage. Now, it wouldn't make any difference.
Sun's LX50, as a piece of hardware, is no better, or no worse than
Dell's, Compaq's, or anybody else's x86 box. The value comes with the
addition of Linux or Solaris and related enterprise software. The LX50
server with Linux includes Sun ONE application and development tools,
J2SE, the Sun Chili!Soft ASP Web server plug-in, the Sun Grid Engine,
and the mySQL database.
The advantages of running an e-business on Linux have been brought to
the fore as mainstream companies continue to roll out Linux offerings.
The big question however, is who will support it? You can get a copy of
it for free off the Net, but you can't just call Linus on the phone and
ask him for help configuring it. This is what I like about companies
like Sun offering Linux. You get the advantages of open source software,
and you still get somebody with a decent help desk you can call when you
get in trouble.
McNealy danced around Sparc/Solaris on the low-end space as well, but
made no specific announcements -- although he did allude to "something"
coming in the near future. We'll keep our eyes open for it.
