NEP/OEM BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES FLYING DRAGON 飛 龍

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Monday Feb 16, 2009

Our Focus for the Road Ahead

With Mobile World Congress just a day away, I'm looking forward to getting amongst the crowd and flying the flag for Sun. Yes, we're making some changes, but these are good changes and I'm very excited about how we're beginning to dial-up a new strategy.

As VP of Communications & Media Practice (CMP), let me share with you right now some of my thoughts on how Sun is riding this economic wave and where our (CMP's) focus will be for the road ahead.  

How Sun is Riding this Economic Wave

Sun is making change for the better, re-shifting resources, putting a greater focus on solutions and identifying ways to make it easier for customers to do business with us.

This environment plays right into Sun’s strengths as IT managers are suddenly more open to change than ever before and open-source products are in high demand.

As the largest contributor of software to the OpenSource community, Sun is well-placed to cater to these demands. Read more about Open-Source at Sun. (Gartner's Report 2008)

Cost of ownership is another big concern. We are in a good position to respond to this with our scalable and flexible solutions, energy efficient products and extensive partner network.

Our Focus For The Road Ahead

The focus for CMP going forward will be to demonstrate Sun's strength in these 4 key areas:

1. Flexible & Scalable Solutions

- Multi-tiered storage enabling great economics

- High density computing with virtualization leveraging every CPU cycle in your datacenter

 2. Eco-Friendly Cost Savings

-  Sun has eco-responsible servers: 1/3 less space, 2 x higher performance, 1/5 less power consumptionEco Innovation

-  Sun's UltraSPARC T2 is the World's Fastest Most Energy Efficient Commodity Micropocessor (IDC)

3. Open Source Gives Customers Options (Read All About It)

- MySQL 80 - 90% lower cost than alternative solutions (eg. Oracle, Sybase, DB2)

- 60K MySQL downloads a day, 11M Solaris 10 downloads

4. It's Easy To Work With Sun

- Superior support services

- Access to the the largest partner network

Hope to see you in Barcelona and if not you can follow me on twitter @darrelljs. Who knows, Sun might be arranging a tweet-up…..

Posted at 04:15AM Feb 16, 2009 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[0] | Permalink


Thursday Feb 12, 2009

10 Reasons You Should Use Twitter

Here's a great summary of why you should use Twitter, especially if you have a leadership role in your organization.Convinced yet?

Check out full article at "The Edge!"

If You Are A Leader: The 10 Reasons You Should Use Twitter

  1. To build a sense of community
  2. To get messages out quickly
  3. To listen
  4. To create a snowball effect
  5. To bring visibility to your blog
  6. To get customer feedback
  7. To show your human side
  8. To educate the public about your company AND your culture
  9. To facilitate research and development
  10. To learn the about the latest/greatest advancements in technology

Follow me on Twitter

Posted at 12:59AM Feb 12, 2009 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[1] | Permalink


Saturday Jan 17, 2009

WHY BLOG?

Many folks in sales as well as some of my clients have been asking me, ''Why are you doing this blog?" shortly followed by "How do you find the time"? Both good questions.

The answer is that I firmly believe we need to enhance our online engagement with customers, partners and peers and ''Flying Dragon'' is just one of several new initiatives to do just that. And when you consider the statistics below, it's definitely worth making the time.

- 87% of 18-29 year-olds believe bloggers have become important opinion-shapers, versus 60% of 50-64 year-olds

- 87% of 18-29 year-olds confirm that new media & communications enhance the relationship with their audience, versus 42% of 50-64 year-olds

- 48% of all respondents use LinkedIn & 45% use Facebook to assist in reporting

- 68% of all respondents use blogs to keep up on issues or topics of interest

- 86% of all respondents use company websites, 71% use Wikipedia, & 46% use blogs to research an individual organization

Taken from a  SNCR (Society for New Communication Research) and Middleberg Communications Study

“Markets are conversations - talk is cheap, silence is fatal” from the cluetrain manifesto - Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger

Posted at 08:41PM Jan 17, 2009 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[0] | Permalink


Sunday Dec 21, 2008

SUN THE ANSWER TO ALU’S PRAYERS

Tough times call for new strategies...

Alcatel-Lucent just revealed their new strategy, which is to focus on:

1. IP

2. Optical

3. Mobile & Fixed Broadband

4. Application Enablement

Given this focus, Sun is the perfect match to add further credibility to Alcatel-Lucent’s existing telco-grade reliability, carrier relations and networking solutions.

4 REASONS WHY SUN IS A COMPATIBLE PARTNER

1. IP

Sun lives and breathes IP, ever since the beginning of networking. More than anyone else Sun works with all the key internet destinations such as Ebay, Amazon, Ning, NBC.com and many more to provide reliable IP based solutions.

2. Mobile

Sun not only works with 95% of mobile operators world-wide, Java is embedded in more than 2B mobile devices.

3. Fixed Broadband

Once again broadband is all about access to the Internet and when it comes to network computing, again “the network is the computer” has always been Sun’s mantra and when it comes to Internet, Sun is your answer. We get the Internet better than any other vendor partners.

4. Applications Enablement

Sun has the largest independent and open developer community other than Windows developers. We have always focussed on application and software developers working with NEP’s and carriers to provide innovative developers paths to commercialize their products and applications.

So when in “Heroes” they say “Save the Cheerleader Save the World”, we at Sun say “Save the Engineers Save the Network”.

Posted at 10:02AM Dec 21, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[2] | Permalink


Monday Dec 15, 2008

Enabling Identity as a Service

Interesting week....

I met with a number of key service providers and, for the first time, we actually had meaningful discussions on enabling 'Identity' as a Service.

The proliferation of Opensource economics and broadband services gives us an opportunity to help our clients and Service Providers develop ‘Identity’ as a Service and provide value to the next generation of Web-based businesses. Given the benefits of thin client technology and the fact that almost every device that connects to a network authenticates to itself via a SIM, we at Sun have a great opportunity to combine our experience and insights to deliver a raft of solutions and services to the 'Cloud'. 

We are already seeing the beginning of mass adoption with the mobile device becoming a credit card authentication platform; clearing transactions over the web; ensuring access to secure services; topping up credits with utilities; becoming a loyalty scheme for retailers, etc. The opportunities are endless and the business model solid.

Imagine a Service Provider with the ability to identify a client using a SIM with a Java-based encryption application for authentication combined with one other biometric component (a photo, for example). Other application providers would be willing to pay the Service Provider to aggregate and clear these transactions WITHOUT impacting the consumer. Hence, finding new pockets of value and commercialization opportunities.

For those reading this within Sun, you will immediately recognize a number of our innovative technologies and partners that will help make the above a reality: Sunray, MySQL database, Comms Application server, Openstorage, etc. I urge everyone to take a closer look at these enablers.

For more information on this topic, click on the link below to our free whitepaper.

Sun OpenSSO Enterprise 8.0 Deployment Planning Guide

Posted at 11:00PM Dec 15, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[1] | Permalink


Friday Oct 31, 2008

Intel give Solaris 10 the thumbs-up

1. Solaris is NOT dead. It co-exists with Linux. This trend continues because Linux is not in the management and operating support systems business. Also, having spoken to many ISV's, they find that the feature set in Solaris 10 is better than Linux in the data center (the main area these systems are operated).

2. Linux seems to have a performance benefit in single threaded applications. Traditional network applications seem to perform better.

3. Intel tell me that the testing they have done with their next processors (which are multi-threaded) reach new performance and price points. The best performance is with Solaris 10 not Linux.

So we have a situation where there is a server and an application that is linked to hardware through an OS. The end customer cares more about costs than what OS and processor is important. Processors and OS's are not the largest cost component of any IT or Network .... the application environment is.

In recent dialogues with several clients, the above resonates well with them. Is there religion still? Yes BUT I am not going to get caught in an emotive argument. We must stay focused on the app, the best processor, being open, having the best engineers and winning business from our customers. 

Download Free

Posted at 08:37AM Oct 31, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[2] | Permalink


Tuesday Oct 14, 2008

What's Wrong With This Sentence?

"Going forward, Nokia plans to form its enterprise solutions offering by combining Nokia devices and applications with software solutions from industry leading enterprise vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others." Nokia Press Release. September 29, 2008

Yes, you picked it. No mention of Sun Microsystems. Nokia's new strategy represents a great opportunity for Sun and we'll be working hard to get invited to the party.

So what is Nokia's new strategy? Well, basically Nokia will stop developing and marketing their own business mobility solutions, including enterprise email. Instead they will rely on leading enterprise technology vendors to provide software solutions for them. The idea is to free up resources and expertise so that Nokia can focus on developing their consumer push-email.

The business logic is that Nokia believes it has a better chance of being no.1 in mobile consumer services, and not mobile enterprise services. In effect, they're sticking to what they do best and working with the experts on the enterprise side. And this is where Sun comes in.

Say HELLO to Sun's recently released Java System Mobile Enterprise Platform.

  • A comprehensive mobility solution that enables online & offline data access, data synchronization and secure access to EIS/EAI applications such as Siebel and SAP as well as to any other back-end data source or application.
  • Sun's strong open middleware platform makes it possible for employees to access and synchronize enterprise data such as that typically found in CRM and ERP systems or indeed any other back-end data source.
  • Imagine healthcare professionals working in remote areas. Sun's MEP provides doctors with access to patient records, allowing them to view patient history as well as update medical records whilst out on-call.

Sure, this type of solution already exists, however historically they've been very stove-piped and proprietary to specific back-end systems and also in many cases proprietary to specific devices.

Sun's Mobile Enterprise Platform is based on open standards. It's extensible and provides the necessary tooling to seamlessly mobilize all enterprise applications, even Nokia ones!

Give it a try. Click to download




Posted at 11:51PM Oct 14, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[1] | Permalink


Sunday Oct 05, 2008

The Network - Running too close to capacity to meet 2.0 Demand

To continue to enjoy the apps and features of Web 2.0 we need to create Network 2.0. I say that because the next generation of applications is inextricably linked to broadband network capacity. Traditional service providers need to roll out the next generation of data networks and data centers to achieve OPEX and CAPEX synergies. And then there’s the question of who pays in terms of deploying such infrastructure?

As the industry figures out the best way to move forward, the network struggles to cope with the expansion of broadband services together with the massive increase in Web 2.0 traffic. Capacity Management solutions act as a band aid to extend the life of the existing network architecture but fail to offer a long-term solution.

The network is a bit like a highway. The M25 for example is a highway in the UK that circles London. It was built in the 1980’s and just after completion it was known as the largest car park in Europe. They have made several upgrades including widening concrete bridges, installing speed cameras and traffic flow systems, but I can tell you first hand that it’s still the biggest car park in Europe! The Network is in exactly the same position. As we build more bandwidth and as more users sign up to new services, the pipes simply fill up with web 2.0 data (social networking, user-generated content, video etc). And we haven't even broken the tip of the iceberg. Just wait until the enterprise market embraces 2.0 and Video.

In the meantime, service providers are adapting and acquiring high performance computing environments that are highly scalable and green in order to manage today’s demand and tomorrow’s networking environments.The next generation of data centers and networks will need to provide solutions to this or they will simply not be able to maximize returns on their investment for the shareholder if they are unable to secure Web 2.0 customers. These solutions include: Power - efficiency, Ping - scalability, Pipe - provisioning.

The market, just like the road system, wants to have quality roads, safer roads, open roads and is willing to pay for such improvements. Sun’s approach to providing a solution involves open standards: the tight coupling of Solaris to CPU’s, either on SPARC® or or , the open middleware environment, open developer tools, open storage tools, client technology and the ability to choose the best application to run on other third party operating systems.

Current network architectures will evolve as an extension of high performance computer data centers and these data centers will become an extension of next generation networks.

Sun is an open standards company and history demonstrates that open roads lead to faster growth!


Posted at 10:51PM Oct 05, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[0] | Permalink


Monday Sep 29, 2008

The Future of Open Source in Communications

xchange magazine (a well-trafficked telcom trade publication) invited me to contribute to their idea xchange blog, a revolving guest blog, which features opinions and insights from industry leaders. Below is a summary of my first guest appearance on their blog. The article, entitled 'The Future of Open Source in Communications' is about how open source software is increasingly being adopted in the telecommunication industry. Click here to read full article.

Summary - 'The Future of Open Source in Communications'

  • Carriers and NEP's are embracing open source from BSS/OSS systems to network infrastructure. Find out how BT and Nortel are using open source.
  • Open source is a disruptive technology reducing the Total Cost of Ownership ("TCO"), while increasing Service Provider competitiveness.
  • Open source technology is the top choice for achieving truly interoperable systems. Read more about how Google and Samsung are benefiting from this.

Top Tips

  • Focus on your databases and core communications infrastructure like routers and switches.
  • Choose vendor partners who understand the open source concept.
  • Incorporate your open source product into an open architecture.

Posted at 03:02AM Sep 29, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[0] | Permalink


Monday Sep 22, 2008

Is the Market Slowing or Still Growing?

There has been some concern about Communications and Media being slow to grow and a mature market to work within. This is certainly true if you consider the overall growth of traditional Service Providers and Media businesses. However, if you take a closer look, you get a different picture. Every client I have spoken to over the last few months is network capacity challenged. In other words, they are finding it difficult to keep-up with the customer demand to share and consume richer media over their network, whatever the network, public or private.

Take for example these three YouTube videos. Star wars according to a 3 year old girl. Almost 9 million people downloaded this file. Another video, Chocolate Rain had 28 million downloads. And then there's Evolution of dance, which clocked up almost 98 million downloads. Surely you saw that one. This video alone sent the equivalent of 300,000 DVDs' worth of data across the Internet.

Now take a look at what the established Media are providing. NBC have had huge success with their Beijing Olympics coverage and BBC have made their content available over the web. Interestingly, both corporations use Sun Technologies that you would not have seen 18 months ago.

Rich media over the networks is how we will evolve to sharing information and data and we are just at the beginning of this curve. As businesses and consumers access this infrastructure, they will in fact become Service Providers in their own right. New partnerships will evolve and grow, together with new ways to reach, develop and learn.

Combine this with what we are witnessing in emerging markets, with millions of people joining the networks every day. Look at the huge growth in Mobile and Internet subscribers and how Sun will continue to see growth there. In fact, we could and perhaps should start referring to these markets as 'growth markets' rather than 'emerging markets'.

As more people join the networks, these growth markets reach large numbers of people at lower costs, thanks to economies of scale. This fuels innovation and drives opportunity for incumbent Service Providers to renew infrastructure and maintain competitive advantage while servicing their clients’ growing demands.

So is the market slowing? NO! It’s still growing. We just have to target our growth within multi billion USD sub segments whilst continuing to support our clients as this industry evolves.

Posted at 01:44AM Sep 22, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[6] | Permalink


New Kid on the Block

It's been a long time coming, but here it is as last, my very own blog. But why 'Flying Dragon' you ask. No reason really, it sounds good, stands out and seems to remind everyone of that famous Chinese movie...what was it called again?

Seriously though, I wanted a place where I could share my insights, thoughts and views about the Communications and Media Industries. Given the nature of my job, you're probably wondering why I haven't done this sooner. I guess I was concerned about how many people would read the blog, not to mention the commitment of regularly updating it. But, having recently got hooked on Twitter, I realised I had a bit of a following out there, so I got inspired.

As VP of Global Communications & Media Practice at Sun, I'm privileged to travel the world and meet with some very talented and innovative people, clients and fellow Sun employees alike. And with over 20 years' experience, there's certainly plenty to talk about. So here goes.....

Posted at 01:39AM Sep 22, 2008 by darrelljs in Sun | Comments[7] | Permalink


About this Weblog

Darrell Jordan-Smith
Vice President, NEP/OEM Sales & Industries at Sun

Welcome to my blog. Flying Dragon is all about NEP's/OEM's with a special focus on: open source, cloud computing, eco-innovation, flexible & scalable solutions, innovative technologies...
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