Considering an software solution from Sun? Then you might find it useful to have a look at Vendor Focus for Sun Microsystems\' Software, a review of the company's offerings by Gartner Research. In overview, the authors make the following points: Through acquisitions, Sun is rapidly growing into a multi-product vendor that uses an open-source technology base; Sun is a leading supplier of open-source software and contributor to many additional open-source project; and Sun has struggled in the past with software acquisitions and has to prove itself successful with its recent acquisitions.

The report makes the following recommendations:

• Consider Sun and its open-source software as a serious choice for infrastructure and development.

• Use care in depending on Sun's software until Sun proves itself worthy via a large installed base and excellent track record for support.

• In the ID management, operating systems and development space, consider Sun a primary choice.

• Sun customers should exploit the open-source and standards-based nature of Sun's software to position themselves for the easiest transition to future versions of Sun's software, or to migrate away should the need arise and Sun fail to maintain its strong market position.

• Customers considering Sun's software should also exploit the open-source possibilities of the underlying technologies

The authors review Sun's five lines of software business: Solaris OS, software infrastructure, Java, database management, and developer, noting the industry's reservations about the company's focus on software, which has been seen as demonstrating a lack of understanding with regard to creating a sustainable revenue source. The company's clear emphasis on open source has yet to result in a strategy for monetizing the product line.

Mark Driver examines open source -- OpenSolaris, to middleware (GlassFish), DBMS (MySQL) and Java -- and identifies Sun's strategy of seeking to foster the creation of software stacks from open source and community-developed solutions, along with the effort to move Solaris OS out of the proprietary realm into a package management distribution that can exploit community contributions. He notes as well Sun's willingness to open itself to other platforms than Solaris, as it has done following its acquisition of MySQL for Linux and Windows as well as Solaris.

Donna Scott reviews Sun's infrastructure management software, noting the company's movement toward server virtualization, along with the new offering of management software to the customer-hosted market instead of only the software-as-a-service segment. Scott commends Sun's move from foundational provisioning and patch management toward real-time infrastructure.

The analysis of Solaris by George Weiss recognizes Sun's prudence in not resisting customer preference over the issue of opting for Red Hat Linux or Windows even as it seeks to "out-Linux" Linux with the Solaris OS and noting as well Sun's pre-eminence in the Unix market. The competition for Solaris will continue to be strong and aggressive, he contends, especially from the Red Hat folks. Service-Oriented Architecture Infrastructure is reviewed by Jess Thompson, who identifies Sun's lead products for service-oriented architecture (SOA) as Java Composite Application Platform Suite (JCAPS) and its popular Identity Management Suite. While Thompson praises Sun's approach to application infrastructure (creating and leveraging open-source software communities), he notes that with SeeBeyond, for example, Sun has lost momentum in the area of acquiring and retaining customers. He has praise for the JCAPS suite, though, as a "significant application infrastructure offering."

Earl Perkins has a look at the ID Management Suite that is the foundation of the company's identity and access management (IAM) strategy, noting the inroads Sun has made with financial services, telecommunications and other vertical industries seeking a system that is relatively easy to install, configure and maintain. He cites Sun Java System Identity Manager and Access Manager as an industry leader in the IAM field but observes that IBM Tivoli, Oracle and Novell are exerting pressure on Sun in that segment. Earlier complaints about "lean architecture" have largely been resolved, he writes.

Database Management Systems, reviewed by Donald Feinberg, is a notable area for the acquisition of MySQL and for the move into the data warehousing appliance market, which have made Sun a significant vendor in the DBMS market. The question here remains whether Sun can adequately monetize its acquisitions in that segment while resisting pressure from other DBMS vendors.

Mark Driver has a go at Java, calling the Java Community Process "one of the most successful de facto standard efforts in IT." He sees GlassFish, with its reliance on open source momentum and community process, as a strong contender for a position of strength in the search for alternatives to the prevailing Java EE set of standards. Similarly, Driver regards the acquisition of MySQL as possibly an excellent choice by Sun as it seeks dominance in the mainstream application infrastructure market.

Dave Russell looks at storage management software, finding Sun possessed of strong core storage management solutions such as QFS, SAM-FS and ZFS in the volume management and clustered file system segments, plus offering robust device management offerings for mainframe users. He expresses a caveat, however, when it comes to Sun's ability to come up with a more unified management stack for storage in the open systems segment. He notes some lost ground with the Intellistore venture. He cites the Open Storage Platform as a possible route to increased hardware revenue.

Finally, the writers note that the success of Sun's transition from a successful hardware vendor to successful software vendor (and supporter of the open source initiative) remains an open question that only time can answer. [...read more...]

		fullsource
Print Email Current Profile Archive Blog Generate newsletter