Wednesday November 30, 2005

This Is No Girly-Man Software

For those of you who read yesterday's blog, you know why my wife has started calling me Crazy Ivan... but that's a whole other story! Now back to my day job.

This morning we announced our entire server-side software portfolio will be free of charge and open source. Not pieces, all of it.

In one sense, we have made acquiring software simple. Crazy simple.

But more importantly, with the Solaris Enterprise System announced today, we are giving developers unencumbered access to all the key infrastructure and development software they need. Open, standards-based, complete, multiplatform and free.

We strongly believe this is the only open, enterprise-class multiplatform alternative to Windows on the x86/x64 platform (remember that HP-UX and AIX only don't run on x86 and/or x64).

This new operating environment includes not only an OS kernel, file system services, networking services, etc, but also, application services, web services, communication/messaging services, identity services, naming services, directory services, database services, management services, and the commensurate development tools. You can use a specific Java Suite, such as Identity Management or Business Integration, or you may choose only the pieces you'd like and combine with other standards-based components.

Our motivation is simple. Volume wins. Every time. The more people are using an open, standards-based solution, the more choices you have. The more you are not locked in to a single vendor. The greater an ecosystem will be built. The better you can leverage a community versus only those within your four walls. It allows us to participate in, and grow communities for you, address your biggest pain points and deliver the world's best infrastructure technology.

Are we crazy? Maybe. But so was Java, and NFS, and low cost SMP servers, and not adopting Itanium (oops, I guess that was never really crazy), and, and...

So far, every customer I have disclosed this to says it will make them entirely rethink how they are planning their next generation of applications and services. Freely available software is not coming. It's here. And we will be a leader in bringing it to you.

If you think that's crazy, just wait 'til December 6. In the meantime, check out my podcast on today's announcement at podcast
Posted by johnnyl ( Nov 30 2005, 09:00:00 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [3]

Tuesday November 29, 2005

Is Crazy Ivan Really Crazy???

Finding a great code-name for a product at Sun is akin to naming your first child. Lots of opinions. Lots of controversy. EVERYONE has an opinion. Sometimes the names are arbitrary, sometimes they have subliminal significance to what the product is or represents. In the late '80s Sun's first SPARC microprocessor-based desktop was named "Campus" which represented it's first target market: education.

Our latest code name is "Project Red October" which applies to Wednesday morning's announcement of our software strategy. Why Red October? Maybe because one of my kids is into anything military and we've seen the movie "Hunt For Red October" 312 times... But there was a scene in the book (and movie) that not only represents what we're doing in software, but also how Sun has been able to continually pioneer its own trail.

If you recall the scene, the U.S. commander is about to fire on the Russian Red October submarine, but is persuaded by Alec Baldwin's character that the Russian vessel is about to do a "Crazy Ivan" -- a one-out-of-the-ordinary evasive maneuver. When expected to go right, it goes left. Unexpected. Completely disruptive. Very Sun!

It's our history. Just when the industry thinks they've figured us out, Sun pulls a Crazy Ivan. When the entire industry adopted Windows NT, Sun doubled down its investment in Solaris and everyone said we were crazy.

When Sun applied its volume, standards-based systems design approach to commercial-grade servers, again, we were crazy.

When Sun made the code for Java available...crazy.

When Sun moved its entire software stack to a simple subscription pricing model...crazy.

Open sourcing Solaris. Crazy? In all cases, the Crazy Ivan moves had a positive, often wildly positive, result for Sun.

So what is the latest Crazy Ivan move for Sun? You're hours away from finding out!