Sections in this issue:
News, Features, Hardware, Events, Storage, Top10, Free and Open Source S/W, Education and Research, Sysadmin, Java Technology, Trademarks
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What if you saved your company $10 million a year? Learn how the Scottish Water utility did it by switching to Sun servers and storage (see article [16945]). Other customer wins featured this week: Sun Ultra 20 workstations selected for CAD/CAM design work in Germany [16941]; Java CAPS in the Infonet call center [16944]; and Sun Fire servers and Java technology help keep the EZ-Link online payment service running smoothly for over 200,000 transactions per day [16948].
Our multimedia selections of the week are video of Scott McNealy talking about security [16967], and Greg Grohoski's presentation on the Niagara 2 processor [16964].
Service and support plans abound -- for storage: [16957] and [16952]; for the Solaris OS Education market [16915]; hardware-only support [16962]; and spare parts for DIY maintenance [16958].
Halloween is still a while off, but that's good because you have until October 31 to get free help on Solaris 10 OS questions from the Sun Developer Expert Assistance program [16946]. Don't wait - email today to get started.
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News
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Sun Studio 11 Bests Competition in 3 of 4 SPEC Metrics
Sun Also Launches Sun Studio Express Program
Sun Studio 11, Sun's development tool for the Solaris Operation System (Solaris OS) and the Linux operating system, has topped the competition in three of the four metrics administered by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC): SPECint2006, SPECfp2006 and SPECint_rate2006. Additionally, Sun has launched the Sun Studio Express Program that enables C, C++, and Fortan developers to preview features intended for future releases.
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Sun Spectrum Augments Services by Integrating StorageTek TekCare
Sun Also Expands Data Migration Services with ESCON to FICON Migration Service
Sun has integrated the StorageTek TekCare support program into the Sun Spectrum support portfolio, enhancing the offerings in the area of continuous data availability and reliable, responsive customer care. SunSpectrum Support extends to software, as well as hardware, and includes support for the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS).
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EZ-Link Online Pre-Paid Card Service Running on Sun Fire x64 Servers and Java Technology
Singapore's Most Popular Value Stored Card Adds Convenience for Users
EZ-Link chose Sun Fire x64 servers and Java technology to power its new EZ-Online service based in Singapore. The EZ-Link Online service enables people to load money onto ("top-up") their ez-link cards. The online system handles an average of 200,000 top-up transactions per day.
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Mobile Software Provider Esmertec Renews Java License Agreement with Sun
Moving Ahead with Their Java Product Roadmap
Esmertec has signed a new three-year Java licensing agreement with Sun. The contract will allow Esmertec to continue to offer Java-software solutions compliant with the Java ME (Java Platform, Micro Edition, previously known as J2ME) standards.
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Features
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Beyond Compliance: The Convergence of Provisioning and Identity Auditing
e-seminar Set for September 19, 2006
Driven by such issues as compliance, third-party collaboration and data integrity, identity management is becoming an increasingly vital subject for workers in IT. Sun is sponsoring an hour-long e-seminar entitled "Beyond Compliance: The Convergence of Provisioning and Identity Auditing" that is scheduled for September 19, 2006, at 9:00 a.m. PDT/12:00 p.m. EDT.
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Java Composite Application Platform Suite Aids Infonet
Integration and Application Features Ease CRM Operations
Sun's Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS) came to the rescue for Infonet Services Corporation. Infonet was faced with the need to correct inconsistent and erroneous customer data while also cutting internal costs and providing a single customer view in the management of its portfolio of network-based solutions that include broadband, Internet, intranet, multimedia, remote and local access and such application services as call center, collaboration, messaging and hosting.
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Sun Infrastructure Saves Scottish Water Utility $10M Annually
Consolidation Affects Servers, Applications, Storage, Personnel
Formed in 2003 from the merger of three water authorities, Scottish Water inherited a legacy IT Infrastructure that effectively precluded the consolidation necessary for cost effective operation. More than 30 Sun, HP and Fujitsu servers and more than 80 applications in finance, human resources and science, and three databases siloed in direct-attached storage devices (each with its own backup) made server and storage consolidation imperative. The new Sun IT infrastructure produced annual savings of $10 million.
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Presentation on Niagara-2 Chip by Sun Distinguished Engineer Greg Grohoski
Posted on openSPARC.net Site
Sun Distinguished Engineer Greg Grohoski made a presentation on the Niagara-2 chip at the Hot Chips 18 conference in August 2006 and has made his presentation available online. Learn how this next-generation server-on-a-chip will double throughput and throughput per watt while greatly improving floating-point performance and delivering wire-speed cryptographic acceleration.
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Scott McNealy Security Keynote Video from RSA Conference 2006
Eliminate Frankensteins in the Data Center and Clones on the Desktop
A video of Scott McNealy's speech at the 2006 RSA Conference earlier this year is available online. With his usual humor, he discussed the reasons for insecure data and how Sun technology can help to secure it.
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Hardware
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Enhanced Hardware Only Support Offering within the SunSpectrum Support Portfolio
Hardware Service Plans
For customers seeking hardware-only support, a new offering from SunSpectrum support portfolio provides four plan options: Next Business Day Support, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Sun Hardware Service Plans provide hardware service coverage, parts replacement, telephone and online technical support, knowledgebase access, and Sun alerts and notifications, as well as other supporting benefits.
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Support Your System with the Sun Spare Parts Listing
Same Rigorous Testing as Used on Sun Systems
Spares are available to all Sun customers to help support their own system and perform self-maintenance up to five years after the EOL of a system. Hardware spares purchased from Sun have been tested using the same rigorous testing process and testing equipment used on Sun systems.
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Events
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Sun Tech Days Conference in Seattle, Washington
Web 2.0, Java Technology and the Solaris 10 Operating System
Sun started its 9th series of worldwide events for developers, "Sun Tech Days, 2006-2007", in Seattle, Washington. There is no charge for these events which will be loaded with technical content, practical "how to" information, demonstrations, examples of real-world solutions, hands-on training and more. Please note that space is limited.
Wednesday, September 6th, Sun Tech Day featured two bonus, no-cost, developer days: NetBeans Day or OpenSolaris Day. On Thursday, Sun offered full-day Java University classes.
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Sun Microsystems Launch September 13, 2006
On the Web and Live in New York City
Sun Microsystems will be hosting a live web event to unveil its newest line-up of products, services and programs.
According to the Sun announcement:
"Open, flexible, high-performance Sun systems, services, storage and software help cut costs, mitigate risk, simplify IT infrastructures and enable new revenue-generating services. Get a reminder to join Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz and other Sun executives to find out how."
Some Sun offices may be hosting a customer event as there will be a live satellite broadcast of the general session.
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Atlanta OpenSolaris User Group - ATLOSUG
Next Meeting - Tuesday, September 12, 2006
The next meeting of the Atlanta OpenSolaris User Group will feature Ryan Matteson in a talk titled, "DTrace Toolkit". The grup was established to connect members of the community interested in OpenSolaris and Solaris, and to grow the OpenSolaris community in the Atlanta area. All are welcome - developers, open-source contributors, system administrator, architects, and any other interested parties.
For more information.
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Storage
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Storage Briefs: Dual TCP/IP Interface for the Sun StorEdge L8500 Tape Library
HP LTO3 4Gb FC Drives for Sun StorEdge L180/L700 and Sun StorEdge L8500 Libraries
A second TCP/IP host interface feature is now available for the Sun StorEdge L8500 tape library, which boosts the availability of the tape library. In another storage product announcement from Sun, HP LTO3 4Gb FC drives are now available for Sun StorEdge L500, Sun StorEdge L180/L700 and Sun StorEdge L8500 libraries.
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Sun StorageTek Service Plans and Online User Guide
Get Quality Service and Support from SunSpectrum
The SunSpectrum Support portfolio has been enhanced to include an advanced support offering for storage with the Sun StorageTek Service Plans. This support offering for storage builds on the strengths of both the Sun and legacy StorageTek support offerings to help you get the most out of your Sun storage systems and meet your need for data availability.
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Top10
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Top Ten Articles for Last 4 Issues
Vol 102 Issues 2, 3, 4 and 5
Each week, we determine which articles have been most frequently referenced by logged-in subscribers to provide you with a list of the most popular articles for each of the last three issues. The Web version of this article lists the top 10 articles for each of the last four issues. The top articles from the last issue - Vol 102, Issue 5 - were:
- BigAdmin Feature: Solaris ZFS: Data Management from Micro to Macro [16896]
- Brief Tech Tip: Determine Speed and Duplex Settings in Solaris OS [16940]
- New Features of SunSpectrum Service Plans [16894]
- Solaris Files and File System Framework; Podcast and Chapter Available Online [16906]
- Various Upgrades Offered for Sun Fire X4100/X4200 Server Line [16905]
- Upgrade to the Sun Fire X4500 Server and Save 15 Percent [16904]
- Sun i-Runbook Service, Service Pack Edition [16913]
- SciMark Benchmark Results of Sun Ultra 20 M2 Workstation Reach World Record Level [16939]
- The Institute For Genomic Research Selects Sun Fire Servers Over HP [16931]
- Sun Offers Upgrades for High-end Sun Fire Servers [16918]
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Free and Open Source S/W
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OpenOffice Suite Adopted in India by Election Commission and Some Schools
Richard Stallman Advocates Open Source at GPLv3 Conference
The Indian Election Commission (EC) has decided to uninstall Microsoft Office applications from its entire workspace and replace them with OpenOffice, according to a report on Kolkata Newsline.
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New Enterprise-class WSRP Open Source Project
Web Services for Remote Portlets Implementation
The new Enterprise-class WSRP Open Source project is part of the overall Portal Open Source Project (defined by the OASIS Web Services for Remote Portlets TC). The goals of the project include building a community of developers who are committed to increasing the quality of the Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) implementation.
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Shmux 1.0: Execute the Same Command on Many Hosts in Parallel
Now Available for Solaris OS versions 8 and 10, on SPARC and x86
Version 1.0 of the free program shmux has been added for Solaris 8 Operating System (Solaris OS) on SPARC and Solaris 10 OS on SPARC and x86. Shmux is a program for executing the same command on many hosts in parallel.
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Education and Research
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Sun Bests 43 Competitors in Bid for CAD/CAM Equipment in Germany
Price/Performance Gets Sun the Nod
An RFP from the several universities in the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg for replacement of their legacy CAD/CAM equipment drew proposals from 44 vendors, Sun Microsystems among them. After whittling down to the six companies most capable of meeting the demands of the RFP, administrators chose Sun to fulfill the contract. Sun delivered 312 Sun Ultra 20 high-performance workstations with dual-core AMD Opteron processors and high-end NVIDIA 3-D graphics cards certified for Microsoft operating systems in February 2006.
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Sun Offers New Solaris OS Service Deal to Education, Research Market
Special Pricing and Configuration Available
In a newly announced deal, Sun is transitioning the Solaris Service Plan Standard and Premium tiers and introducing replacement parts that are specially priced and configured for the Global Education and Research market. Non-Sun platforms users and customers choosing to forgo hardware support will be eligible for a new comprehensive set of subscription-based service plans for the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS).
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Sysadmin
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Revisiting Valuable Solaris OS Books: Solaris Systems Programming by Rich Teer
Maximum Information with Minimum Distraction
While Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS) is the newest version of the OS and full of valuable features, plenty of people still use version 9 or earlier and need a good reference book, especially one that can help them build on their Solaris knowledge and improve their use of version 10. Rich Teer wrote a definitive guide to Solaris OS that covers up to version 9 called "Solaris Systems Programming" that is loaded with practical advice.
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DTrace Quick Reference Guide Available Online
Selected Tables of Variables and Functions
A Quick Reference Guide to DTrace has been posted on the Sun Developer Network with links to a table of providers, functions, aggregating functions, variable and built-in variables.
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Consolidating Services from Many Servers to One Sun Fire T2000 Server
Sun Java Enterprise System and Solaris Containers Simplify Management, Improve Performance
Consolidating multiple enterprise infrastructure services from many servers to the Sun Fire T2000 server using the Sun Java Enterprise System and Solaris Containers can can simplify management, improve performance and increase the efficiency of delivering enterprise infrastructure services. A Sun BluePrints white paper outlines how to perform this consolidation.
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Java Technology
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Java University at Sun Tech Days: Training Offered in Java EE and AJAX
Sun Tech Days Expands Topics to Include Solaris 10 OS, NetBeans and OpenSolaris
Java University (JavaU) training has been added to the 2006-2007 Sun Tech Days events. The first event was held in Seattle, WA, September 6-8, 2006. The program has been expanded to 13 days and to cover more topics, including Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS), NetBeans IDE and OpenSolaris.
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Java Card Technology Well Placed to Take Advantage of Government ID Mandates
Java Card 2.2.2 Specification Designed to Operate with Contactless Cards
Frost & Sullivan, the U.S. research firm, recently predicted that government ID projects will drive growth for smart cards and that Java Card from Sun is being used and is well placed to take advantage of this market opportunity.
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Get the Latest Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version
Java.com Consumer-Friendly Site Provides Updates
Do you have the latest version of the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) on your computer? You can test to see what version you have by going to the java.com page. The download from java.com, Sun's consumer-friendly site, is free and will allow web-based programs that use Java technology-based software to run on your computer more easily.
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