> So, only people that say nice things about Sun are allowed to post here? Sorry, I
> didn't realise this was the Sun Fanclub website! Thanks so much for clearing
> that up, but I think I'm about to upset you again.
Of course you are entitled to your opinion, how much ever one sided they may be,
and the same is applicable to me. I have argued with your post because you are
on the other side of the spectrum - the anti-Sun/pro-HP (who seemingly pretend
to be pro-IBM/DELL as well, just to hide the pro-HP stance) zealot - feel free to prove otherwise.
Yes, I repeat that Sun doesn't need ROCK today, because Fujitsu/APL covers that
space very well for the next two years. Delay in getting a chip out is not new in the non-x86 area - but because of the sticky nature of this business, customers make low purchasing decisions and then they stick for a very long time, and they don't migrate unless options run out on them - and I don't see delay in ROCK roll-out
as one reason why a Sun account would consider migrating. Sun has to deliver
on ROCK to prove on their commitments, but a chip delay with another very
viable option present isn't alarming to Sun to say the least. Sun has been selling
the US-IV+ based servers even now, even though they are utterly uncompetitive,
and they aren't selling them bad either.
You are right, Sun can't survive on x86 business, but that's the area which is
growing. Unix business isn't growing - it's slowly shrinking because some
applications are migrating to x86. HP/IBM/Sun are scrambling to get the piece
of the debris, but nobody is betting their business growth on it. x86 is where the
growth is coming from. Where do you think Oracle gets most of it's revenue these
days - from the Unix DB licenses or from the x86 licenses - feel free to point to
appropriate data instead of hand waving. Many of these x86 Oracle licenses can
instead use MySQL and would save lots of money even with 24x7 support. There
are lots of markets outside the Fortune-500 mission critical area which need
reasonably good databases at the best price - MySQL has a popularity lead in this space compared to PostgreSQL. And Windows bundled freebie SQL ? May be
it's good for a hobby project, these sexy new startups are all doing Linux -
windows isn't on their radar. A customer starts with free MySQL on Linux, but
as it's operation becomes bigger, his inhouse support is no longer enough -
tha't when is opts for paid support on the same software and can still save money
compared to keeping an inhouse support team.
And of course Sun's new x86 servers are not second tier DELL clone, not unless
you are working for HP or DELL marketing. Margins on x86 servers are slim on
x86 server hardware, but not on software/service/support. If Sun can execute well
on their software side, they can get a lot more margin compared to DELL.
So yes, when Sun CEO goes to the wall street and begs in front of them, that's
because he has seen that the ground has already moved from underneath Sun - all those Unix customers has already migrated to much cheaper
x86/Linux/Windows boxes - and the CEO already knows that these customers will
never move back to another Unix box again, whether IBM or HP or Sun for these
applications already migrated. Guess what ? More and more customers keep
buying a lot more x86 servers compared to Unix servers for their data crunching
AND these web applications, and more startups are coming up completely based
on Linux/Opensource and keeps growing lot faster than these old horse business
houses. It's wise to try to grow by courting these geeks while trying to keep the
revenue stream from the enterprise backbone steady.
Tell me about how much HP and IBM are poaching Sun Unix customers with
their Unix gears (not migration to x86) because Sun doesn't have ROCK (I count
IBM is doing it well, but I very much doubt HP). I bet Sun would be happy
defending themselves with APL and put the extra energy behind their x86
business and software.
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