Analyze This: Sun Analyst Relations

Today, Sun added several new software components to the newly released Sun Java Enterprise System Release 6 (Java ES R6).

As Paul Hinz mentions, Sun Java Enterprise System is a comprehensive set of subscription-based services that combines software, support, professional services, and educational services in a single package with a simplified price. The Java Enterprise System consists of a set of principles unique in the industry which aligns a broad set of platform components. All products within Java ES are coordinated during development for common components and features, released along identical time lines and are quality assurance tested together for interoperability and compatibility.

The new software components in Java ES R6 include the Sun GlassFish Web Space Server, Sun OpenSSO Enterprise, as well as GlassFish Portfolio, an open web and application platform. Additional upgraded versions of the Suite components are included in this latest version. You can also view a chart that compares Java ES R5 U1 with this latest version, Java ES R6 in Paul's blog.

Java ES R6 is comprised of several Java System Suites:

* Sun Java Enterprise System Base
* Sun GlassFish Portfolio
* Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (Java CAPS)
* Sun Java Identity Management Suite and
* Sun Java Availability Suite

This allows customers to purchase Java ES components based on their business requirements. And then, as business needs change, they can easily add additional Suites.

To learn more about what our customers think of Java ES, click here

Click here to get it.

Earlier today Sun delivered some more good news with the announcement of New Open Network Systems which can rapidly scale MySQL-Based Web services to potentially millions of users with major cost savings.

Combining Sun's Open Network Systems with the Sun GlassFish Portfolio and Sun's MySQL Enterprise Server Sun's Open Network Systems approach gives customers faster MySQL and GlassFish performance, the fastest data-warehousing platform, the most scalable platforms for large-scale web buildout, and up to three times more density for storing rich media than the competition at 70% off the cost.

More specifically, this architecture comprises:
* Sun Blade 6000 Modular System with AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon or UltraSPARC processors
* Sun Blade 6000 Virtualized Multi-Fabric 10GbE Network Express Module (NEM)
* Sun Storage 7000 "Amber Road" family
* Sun's next-generation enterprise Flash products
* Sun's MySQL Enterprise Server, the Sun GlassFish Portfolio, Solaris ZFS and a choice of OpenSolaris, Solaris or Linux operating systems
* Sun support and professional services, including a Web services assessment workshop

For a deeper dive on the Internet reference architecture, click here

Sun also announced the addition of Flash solid state disks (SSDs) to the Sun Systems for MySQL Virtualization solution, which leverages Sun's chip multithreading (CMT) servers, Solaris Containers and Logical Domains (LDoms) to consolidate multiple MySQL deployments to fewer, more eco-efficient servers and you can find all of this news by clicking here

All in all, lots of good news from Sun!

In addition to the updates my colleague Teri posted about MySQL 5.4, MySQL Cluster 7 and Remote DBA, Sun has also made a few other exciting announcements during the MySQL Conference & Expo, and RSA Conference this week.

Today, we announced expanded interoperability between the Sun Identity Management Suite and the MySQL database , which will let customers deploy Identity Management more cost effectively and create more dynamic identity architectures.

In addition, today Sun became the first and only open source access management vendor to provide out-of-the-box federation support for Google Apps . The new Sun OpenSSO Express release lets employees use their enterprise logins to access Google Apps Premier Edition (Google's SaaS solution for business messaging and collaboration), which improves security and makes administration easier. Sun also announced a new server & storage system designed for large-scale Web deployments using MySQL.

And finally, yes, there is some news about cloud computing… Sun also announced that the GlassFish Portfolio and open source identity management offerings – OpenSSO and OpenDS – are now available to ISVs and system integrators via Amazon's EC2. Sun's open source software infrastructure can be deployed quickly on Amazon's cloud to easily demonstrate how to build and secure cloud applications, and ISVs and SIs pay only for the infrastructure software services and capacity that they actually use. This announcement is an example of Sun's commitment to the concept of cloud computing, and in particular to an open cloud. It is part of Sun's long-term plan to offer our open source software on all popular cloud platforms, including our own and we are very pleased that Amazon has chosen to include these offerings in their cloud platform.

For more information on our Identity Management Suite, click here.

On Tuesday April 21 at the MySQL Conference, Sun announced two exciting new releases of MySQL that demonstrate its readiness for mission-critical, enterprise-scale applications, even those requiring the highest levels of availability and disaster recovery.

First, MySQL 5.4 significantly increases the performance throughput and scale-up profile of the DBMS to large scale 16-way servers. Internal improvements also include subquery optimization and join performance enhancements, which demonstrate immediate improvement in application performance without any changes to code - customers can upgrade and take advantage of the improvements immediately without any additional work. A preview of this release is available for download immediately here. More information can be found here. The full press kit for this announcement, as well as all the announcements from the conference, is here. Please also take a moment to listen to the great podcast interview with Robin Schumacher, MySQL Product Manager, on 5.4 located on the same page.

The other great release news is MySQL Cluster 7. This new version is available immediately and is in production today. Just as with MySQL 5.4, MySQL Cluster 7 includes significant performance and scalability enhancements, as well as support for popular LDAP directories and simplified cluster back-up and maintenance. This release also takes MySQL Cluster to 5 Nines high availability. MySQL Cluster has already proven itself in the telecommunications industry, where it can claim the full roster of top tier providers as customers, as well as in the financial industry and in heavy-demand Web 2.0 industries. This latest release should expand its appeal and use in these sectors as well as in other horizontal, high-demand implementations. More information, including two new white papers, can be found here. The official press release is available in the press kit here.

In addition to the product release news, Sun also announced the creation of a new MySQL Enterprise partner program, which allows consulting companies and service providers to work closely with Sun's database team to offer Remote DBA services that let them bring the benefits of MySQL Enterprise directly to their clients. The Pythian Group (www.pythian.com) now becomes the first Authorized MySQL Enterprise Remote DBA Partner via this program, but there will be many more to come. This program will help scale the community supporting MySQL via MySQL Enterprise beyond the resources here at Sun to encompass partners across the globe wherever MySQL customers need them over time. More information on the program can be found here. The press release can be found here.

There's more exciting news for MySQL watchers in our additional announcements from our Identity and Software Infrastructure product areas, as well as on our new Open Network Systems for rapidly scaling MySQL-based web services. All press releases are contained in the press kit here, and are discussed by my Analyst Relations colleagues in blog postings as well. Please read all to make sure you have all the news!

And don’t hesitate to contact me or any of my colleagues for more information or to schedule a briefing.
Teri Palanca

Using a unique Open Network System approach to systems design, Sun is pioneering the convergence of open compute, storage, networking and software technologies, which allows Sun to deliver the highest-performing, most efficient and scalable systems on the market. This was the approach that brought customers the breakthrough Sun Storage 7000 Unified Storage Systems (Amber Road) family of storage appliances launched just last year to a stunning reception in the marketplace.

In the latest stunning example, today Sun is delivering a new family of x64 blades and rack mount servers based on the Intel Xeon Processor 5500 Series (Nehalem). These impressive new systems feature:

• Next-generation flash storage technology to eliminate I/O bottlenecks
• Integrated networking technologies to decrease cost and complexity
and a
• Consistent management tool (Integrated Lights Out Manager, or "ILOM") to ease manageability across the servers and blades.

What all this means is that we can deliver up to 3x the performance of the previous processor generation, and, with the integration of Sun's SSD and Flash in Sun servers and blades, customers can enjoy 65x faster response times and 38% less power/GB. Here is the full range of servers Sun announced today:

• Sun Fire X2270 (Wasp) - The industry's first Flash-ready system from a tier-one vendor
• Sun Fire X4170, X4270, X4275 (Lynx family) - The industry's leading x64 virtualization servers
• Ultra 27 Workstation - Unmatched visualization performance in its class
• Sun Blade X6270 server module (Virgo) – The leading blade platform for virtualization
• Sun Blade X6275 dual-node server module (Vayu) - The industry's fastest blade server

But don't take my word for the amazing benefits heralded by Sun's unique Open Network System design. Here's Systems EVP John Fowler and Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim discussing the only-from-Sun benefits for customers:



Or, check out a full roster of technical guides, white papers and solutions blueprints on the launch page.

The little engineering team that can is at it again. I've said it before and I'll say it again: These folks release more product, more faster, and more better than pretty much anyone. To wit: VirtualBox 2.2 is here! And the most poplar open source virtualization product on earth continues a string of impressive releases--including the first commercial virtualization product to support OVF export for virtual appliances. So what else is new in the latest version? Well, glad you asked:

Share and Publish

• export and import virtual machines using OVF support

Faster and more Powerful

• hypervisor speedups
• guests can have a max of 16Gb RAM (up from 3.5Gb)
• 3D acceleration for OpenSolaris and Linux guests

Easier

• smarter defaults (audio, USB, VT-x)
• Host-only networking for using server guests offline
• removed previous limitations such as not mixing VT-x and non-VTx guests. (64- and 32-bit guests)

You can hear all about these features in the April edition of The VirtualBox Live show.

Or just download it and get going right now.

The "Buy Now" button just warms my heart. That's right, you heard it here first, you can now by your OpenSolaris Toshiba laptop direct from the OpenSolaris Web site. Check out these two new models. They're too cool!

The Tecra M10 offers the power, performance and connectivity you need on the go-and back at the desk. It's astonishingly thin, light and portable, and it's built for enhanced durability and security. Plus, it ships with the best OS on the planet.

The Protege 600 is Toshiba’s ultimate ultralight notebook. It comes standard with a built-in Optical Drive and Webcam (not to mention the most advanced OS on planet earth). It also features tremendous battery life.

From Developers to Admins to Students, these laptops deliver the power to help you do your best, broad connectivity for staying in touch, along with added protections for safer computing. All this, plus the quality, innovation and reliability you’d expect from the laptop expert. And, don't forget, one-of-a-kind features like ZFS, DTrace, built-in virtualization, Crossbow open networking, Predictive Self Healing, and much much more.

There are scads of reasons why Solaris unleashes the full potential of the new Xeon 550 (Nahalem) processors from Intel. But before we get to the groundbreaking only-on-Solaris performance, power management and reliability capabilities of Nahalem-based servers, let's spend a moment to understand underlying reasons why Solaris is the best OS for Nahalem:

• There have been more than 2-years of joint development between Intel and Sun.
• Intel is an active participant in the OpenSolaris community.
• Solaris is now OEMed by the top five x86 server vendors (HP, IBM, Dell, Fujitsu and Sun).
• Solaris has been optimized to take advantage of large memory and multi-core and multi-thread systems for many years.
• ZFS brings enterprise data scaling with the performance of dedicated proprietary storage systems.

OK, now for the goodies. Thanks to the tight collaboration between Intel and Sun, as well as Solaris' lineage in running multi-threaded system, customers can enjoy a number of one-of-a-kind capabilities by choosing Solaris for their Nahalem-based systems. But don't take my word for it. Check out Sun and Intel engineers discussing the optimzations:



Or, listen to the impressive power management and performance benefits made possible by the only-in-Solaris PowerTop and Turbo Boost features:



For more examples of the performance, power management and relaibility benefits made possible by Solaris, point your browsers here.

Or, for more info, check out Jacki's fine On the Record Blog.

Also, bookmark http://www.sun.com/launch and tune in on April 14 for more details on Sun's major systems launch and get a sneak peek of the event here.

Check out the first of a three video series by Sun's Ian Murdock and Jim Parkinson defining and describing Connected Developer.

As Sun delivers on its cloud computing strategy the Connected Developer concept will be the the driving force of the developer services we offer for building and deploying applications on and to the cloud!

For more about our cloud strategy and cloud developer services take a look at Dave Douglas and Lew Tucker's keynote from last week's CommunityOne East conference the focus of which was our cloud computing strategy.
You can view this and other way cool videos on our SAS portal.

For a totally out of this world look at the latest and greatest in eco innovation, check out big brain Greg Papadopoulos (or at least his well-muscled avatar) giving a Second Life tour of Sun's revolutionary POD datacenter design. In this episode, he takes you on a tour of the brand new Sun Broomfield datacenter and, along the way, details the radical cost and energy efficiencies made possible by this revolutionary design.