Sun STARS around the globe: Franz Haberhauer

Thursday Mar 20, 2008

Not only is this Sun Star a great engineer, he can cook too!!

Introducing Franz Haberhauer, Technical Director and Chief Technologist!

Franz, we heard that you recently celebrated a milestone anniversary at Sun?

I just had my 15th anniversary - I joined Sun in January 1993 and I'm based in Stuttgart, Germany.

What is your current job role?

As a Technical Director and Chief Technologist I evangelize Sun's new technologies and work towards their adoption among our customers. I'm leading a small, highly skilled team of OS and Technical Systems Ambassadors focusing on platform technologies especially Solaris, HPC, but also Web 2.0. On the other hand we provide technical support for Sun's education and research business in Germany.

What do you like about working for Sun?

I enjoy working on the (b)leading edge of technology. Sun is an incredibly creative and innovative company with passionate employees. The ambassador program and other international initiatives and task forces gave me a great opportunity to learn about and appreciate the cultural diversity in an international company.

What paradigm shifts do you currently observe?

Sometimes it takes time until new technologies get adopted. Sun Ray isn't the latest technology, it had been on the forefront of thin clients since years with session mobility as a highlight. But now we are facing a perfect storm: Desktop virtualization based on Sun Secure Global Desktop and Sun Ray on one hand are an approach for a more efficient desktop provisioning and management and on the other hand ultra thin clients are now recognized as a means towards a more power efficient desktop landscape. One of our projects in Germany at University Hospital rechts der Isar, Munich has just been featured at the Sun Analyst Summit 2008 session on The New Eco-Nomics. Sun Rays consume 95% less power than a PC based solution.

Another positive trend is the large interest in Solaris and OpenSolaris. Sun's open source strategy is recognized in the market - we get invited to events like Linux Day or LinuxTag which once picked Linux as a synonym for Open Source but are still looking at the larger picture. Another driver are the technologies in Solaris, especially ZFS and Solaris Containers. At our recent partner university for which I acted as agenda lead the sessions on ZFS and Container Best Practices have been the two most popular ones among 30 breakout sessions coverings Sun's whole product and technology portfolio. Speaking about filesystems: SAM-FS is on the rise as well - a great fit for the digital archiving and library projects which are popping up everywhere.

Do you have a favorite blog or website?

blogs.sun.com has evolved into a great technical resource. Yet for much information actually a Wiki would be better suited - like the ZFS Best Practices Guide on solarisinternals.com. But now there is Sun Wikis.

Beyond Sun - being a passionate photographer - dpreview is one of my favorite ones.

What about a favorite "junk" food?

One of my other passions is cooking - therefore "junk" food is not really my favorite topic. DIVA comment: Oh... that explains the photo!!

Do you participate in any social networking websites?

Like most colleagues in Sun's German sales force I'm in Xing - and internationally in LinkedIn.

Beyond my professional life I'm participating in some German and international photographer's forums and communities like Flickr, fotocommunity, and Panoramio - I enjoy my pictures showing up in Google Earth's geo layer.

Please list any Sun or external communities that you are a member of.

One of the most vivid communities within Sun are the worldwide OS Ambassadors. They meet once or twice a year. Having met someone personally also strengthens the relationships in a virtual community. I've made the experience that people in virtual groups at some point in time want to meet others face to face in other communities as well, e.g. within the fotocommunity there are several local groups in Stuttgart which meet monthly.

Jointly with our local Sun Education Center I've set up a series of evening events around Solaris and OpenSolaris: Solaris@STEP (named after the location STuttgart Engineering Park).

If you could meet anyone tomorrow, who would it be? Why?

Geoffrey Moore, author of "Crossing the Chasm". Having a focus on technology adoption, this book is a must read.

Tell us a little known fact about yourself.

Despite living in the home town of two leading car manufacturers - Mercedes and Porsche - I'm driving a BMW 525d touring.

Outside of work and family, is there anything that you're passionate about?

I mentioned my passions already: photography - taking pictures with my Canon DSLR bodies (a 20D and a 40D) as well as optimizing them through digital image processing , cooking and eating out, and fine wines - especially from Tuscany and Bordeaux.

Do you have an external blog?

I maintain a blog in German on blogs.sun.com/FranzHaberhauer. While most Germans in the IT business do speak English pretty well many nevertheless prefer reading publications in German. While I'm not very active in my own blog I regularly contribute to my team's group blog blogs.sun.com/Solarium which focuses on Solaris and is maintained in German as well.