New products announced this past week [17003] included enhancements to Sun's CoolThreads technology, a virtual tape library that runs on Solaris 10 OS [17006], new Sun Fire servers [17004], and more. The x64 servers are making an impression, as explained by John Fowler in an AMD webinar (see article [16910]) and more in [16911]. AMD is also using Sun's Grid Compute Utility in its design and manufacturing process to provide the variable capacity they need [16994].
Awards have been coming in also: The Java Developer's Journal selected NetBeans and the Sun Java Web Start as winners in their Editor's Choice Awards [16997], and Sun is sixth in the InformationWeek 500 List [17000], recognized for its supply chain innovations.
More interactive content is now available on the newly designed Sun Developer Network SDN Channel blog page. Developers can find new videos and archives of valuable content [16986]. Developer input is also being sought for the Java SE 6 [16985]. JRuby experts are also working on an implementation of JRuby on the JVM [16989].
At Sun's annual New York customer event, CEO Jonathan Schwartz emphasized the growth Sun is experiencing as he and others unveiled new products, including Sun Java System Identity Manager 7.0 (covered in article [16996]), a new Netra blade server running CoolThreads technology, Sun StorageTek Crypto-Ready T10000 tape drive, Sun Ultra 25 workstation and more.
When AMD decided it needed more compute power for its chip design and manufacturing process, they selected the Sun Grid Compute Utility, a pay-per-use resource. The Sun Grid Compute Utility provides access to additional, variable capacity as AMD's production cycle demanded.
ISVs now have a new way to take advantage of the Sun Grid Readiness Offering with the newly added Utility Computing component that enables ISVs to port and deploy their compute-intensive applications on the Sun Grid. ISVs can also participate in a pilot program for hosting applications in the Sun Grid application catalog.
Enhancements to the Sun Java System Identity Manager 7.0 automate compliance processes, making it easier and less expensive to manage compliance regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley. This version is the first in the industry to combine user provisioning with identity auditing.
To give developers more choice and to simplify developing standards-based Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE, aka Java EE) applications, Sun worked with Red Hat to create an installer that includes the NetBeans IDE and the JBoss Application Server in one bundle. This will allow developers to do a single installation and then immediately begin developing Java EE applications.
The Java Developer's Journal Editor's Choice Awards are out, and they acknowledged Sun with awards for two products -- Sun Java Web Start technology and NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 5.0. The Java Developer's Journal also recognized SwingLabs, a Sun-sponsored umbrella project for various open source initiatives that is part of the java.net community.
For the past 18 years, InformationWeek has identified and honored the nation's most innovative users of information technology with its annual listing, the InformationWeek 500. Sun Microsystems was ranked sixth in the top 10 category and awarded the winner in InformationWeek's Innovation Category for Supply Chain.
Sun and Accenture are expanding their relationship to jointly develop Identity-enabled Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and composite applications built on the Sun platform. They have established an executive team that will identify and assess additional market and technology opportunities as they emerge. They will also create the Accenture Innovation Center for Sun Solutions.
The Netra High Availability Suite 3.0 software is a new offering from Sun that provides the building blocks for modular, open and highly available solutions throughout the core network, improving a customer's ability to deploy applications and make them more available. This new solution supports the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) on SPARC and Opteron, Linux (MonteVista Carrier Grade Linux 3.1) and Netra ATCA servers.
Solaris Trusted Extensions is a new feature in Solaris 10 11/06 Operating System (Solaris OS) helps ensure that access to communications between objects is strictly controlled and all objects in the OS have a well-defined, easily audited relationship to each other. The Solaris Trusted Extensions feature is being evaluated by Common Criteria testing.
Sun has transferred its mainframe rehosting (MFR) software to Clerity Corporation. Mainframe rehosting software products will no longer be offered on Sun's price list. Sun will continue to support customers for the term of their current service contracts. New service contracts will be only available from Clerity. Sun recommends that customers renew their service contracts with Clerity at their earliest opportunity.
Sun is offering Service Pack 3 for SUSE Enterprise Linux 9 as a successor to the base-level release of SUSE Enterprise Linux 9, which is being EOL'd. This replacement is thought necessary since the earlier version lacked the drivers necessary to boot up on Sun's Opteron-based systems.
Sun is a platinum sponsor for DEMOfall '06, a well-established conference at which new products, technologies and companies are announced and demonstrated. Java technology will be featured in 20 new products at the DEMOfall 2006 conference September 25-27 in San Diego, CA.
The BM Seer blog has posted a new result for the SAP Standard Application SD (Sales and Distribution) benchmark with the Sun Blade x8400 server module beating the IBM p5 505Q with 1.65 GHz POWER5+ by 55 percent and the IBM p5 550 with 1.9 GHz POWER5+ by 70 percent.
The new Sun Fire servers and Sun Ultra workstations announced by Sun on September 13, 2006, "strengthen Sun's systems line-up and provide a strong foundation for a return to growth for Sun," said John Fowler, Executive Vice President, Systems Group, Sun. The products include the Sun Fire V215 server, Sun Fire V245 server, Sun Ultra 25 workstation and more.
Customers can now pre-install the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS) U2 (6/06) and the Sun Java Enterprise System 4 on the XATO (Assemble-To-Order) Sun Fire X4100, Sun Fire X4200 and Sun Fire X4600 server families. Also available is the DC power supply for the Sun Fire X4100 and X4200 servers, along with new XATO RoHS base chassis options.
The Infiniband X1236A-Z and the Sun PCI-E Low Profile Dual Gigabit Ethernet Adapter MMF: X7281A-2 are two additional I/O cards now supported in the Sun Fire X2100 M2 and Sun Fire X2200 M2 servers. These I/O cards will substantially enhance the connectivity of both servers.
At the September 13 Sun event in New York, Sun introduced device-level tape encryption with key management on the Sun StorageTek T10000 tape drive and Sun's first virtual tape library solution to run on the Solaris 10 Operating System (Solaris OS). The StorageTek T10000 Crypto-Ready drive allows for encryption of data using the AES-256 encryption algorithm as it is written to the drive.
A second TCPIP host interface feature is now available for the Sun
Sun StorageTek L8500 modular library system, increasing the system's availability and providing a second network connection for the control path.
To get a higher level of support for your Sun StorageTek C4 tape library hardware that the standard warranty coverage does not offer, look at the SunSpectrum Instant Upgrade service.
In order to provide the StorEdge 5210 NAS to customers in geographies that are not impacted by RoHS requirements, the last order date for the StorEdge 5210 NAS has been extended to October 1, 2006. This announcement applies only to US/Americas and APAC countries that are not impacted by RoHS requirements.
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 103, Issue 1 - were:
Presentation on Niagara-2 Chip by Sun Distinguished Engineer Greg Grohoski [16964]
Scott McNealy Security Keynote Video from RSA Conference 2006 [16967]
Sun Infrastructure Saves Scottish Water Utility $10M Annually [16945]
DTrace Quick Reference Guide Available Online [16936]
Shmux 1.0: Execute the Same Command on Many Hosts in Parallel [16955]
Consolidating Services from Many Servers to One Sun Fire T2000 Server [16950]
Revisiting Valuable Solaris OS Books: Solaris Systems Programming by Rich Teer [16961]
Special Introductory Offer: Free Developer Expert Assistance Support for Solaris 10 OS [16946]
Sun Spectrum Augments Services by Integrating StorageTek TekCare [16952]
Sun Bests 43 Competitors in Bid for CAD/CAM Equipment in Germany [16941]
The SunReady Availability Service (SRAA) is being transitioned to End-of-Life and will be replaced by Sun Operations Capabilities Assessment. The Sun Operations Capabilities Assessment Service provides an objective, quantitative assessment of the people, process and tools factors that define an organization's ability to deliver IT-based services reliably and cost-effectively.
Enterprise Installation Services (EIS) are now available for the Sun Blade 8000 Modular System. Customers who opt for this service can be assured of consistent, cost-effective and quality installation of hardware, storage, networking components and software.
Sun Services is transitioning High Availability Service Packs to End-of-Life. Contractually entitled customers will continue to receive their legally entitled, service listing described deliverables, until their entitlement ends. Existing customers seeking to renew their High Availability Service Pack, Sun Fire Application Readiness Service, Skills Package Service, and SunSpectrum Platinum Support will find them still available.
The Sun Developer Network has taken a step in the direction of being more useful by adding interactive features to its familiar videos and channel archives. Readers will find much that is familiar and much that is new and helpful in the blog.
Marty Itzkowitz has written a Sun Developer Network article entitled "Profiling Java Applications with Sun Studio Performance Tools" that walks readers through the process described in the title.
One of the features of AJAX that endears it to developers using JavaServer Faces in Java Studio Creator is the ability AJAX provides for updating only parts of a page without the need to reload the entire page. AJAX does this without requiring plug-ins. A variety of AJAX components are available online.
Sun is getting the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE) 6.0 (now called the Java Standard Edition (Java SE) 6, code name Mustang) ready for release and has been making code available on java.net and seeking developer input for this release. Sun will also be making the Java Development Kit (JDK) open source.
Sun is bringing in some new developers to work on the dynamic programming language, JRuby, and create an implementation of it on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It will remain open source.
An important new feature of the Java Management Extensions (JMX) API in the Java Platform, Standard Edition 6 (Java SE 6) is its ability to create MXBeans, a substantial improvement over Standard MBeans. MXBeans provide a convenient way to bundle related values without requiring special client configurations to handle the bundles. Eamonn McManus, the technical lead of the JMX team at Sun, and Janice Heiss, explain an easier way to define a type for the bundle of values to avoid getting an inconsistent set of values.
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