Sun Startup Camp, NYC
It was great to participate in today's
Startup Camp in New York. Startup Camp is a face-to-face, collaborative event dedicated to bringing entrepreneurs and vendors together to share advice and information about getting a company up and running. Best of all, it is an un-conference, so I didn't need to prepare a presentation, just show up and talk. Some of the up and coming startups you just might want to checkout include:
Sapotek.com. Their product, Desktoptwo, is a free web based desktop accessible from any web browser. You get 1 GB free storage space, mail, address book, website editor, two blog domain names, IM, MP3 player, office programs, message boards, and more. There is both an English and a Spanish version. I met their CEO and their CTO and received a first hand demo and also learned why they named their company Sapotek, but I'll let you figure out that later after you try their desktop.
What is a startup camp without Sun hosting partner Joyent. To call Joyent a hosting partner really doesn't do them justice. Joyent's offerings include their Accelerator, delivering standards-based, non-proprietary, on-demand virtualized computing and storage solutions for web application developers. Yes, their Accelerator offering runs on Sun servers using Solaris containers, but that isn't the point. If you are developing with Java technology, Ruby on Rails, or other web technology, you have to check out Joyent's offerings. Trust me, it is a whole lot simpler than renting an empty cage in a hosting center and trying to do it yourself.
PlugandPlayTechCenter.com, a high tech technology incubator for over 100 startups with ambitious plans to help a lot more startups get going.
I of course met a lot of other startups today, but after my 22 hour day trip to New York, I'll have to talk about the rest later.
"Trust me, it is a whole lot simpler than renting an empty cage in a hosting center and trying to do it yourself."
That might be, but it also means lack of physical controls of the system(s).
Personally, I cannot do without that kind of control. I need to configure and install that system; I need to have the root password; I need to have the access to /dev/console; and I need to be the one who decides which cable plugs in where AND plug it in.
Without that kind of control, I would be seriously unhappy.
Working in a team is fine, but those people are my peers, and that's different.
I can't possibly stand the thought of me being a customer and someone else configuring a system for me. *I* am root.
So at least for me personally, the concept of Joyent accelerators would never work; I want my own servers and infrastructure too badly.
Posted by UX-admin on October 23, 2007 at 02:45 AM PDT #
Dear UX-admin,
One size hosting clearly doesn't fit all and there are other Sun partners that provide dedicated server hosting. One of these, that was also at Startup Camp, is LayeredTech, http://www.layeredtech.com. They provide different services from bare metal servers to fully hosted. I loved their CTO's comment to me, "We provide cheap white box servers to those who want the lowest cost solution, we offer HP servers to customers to want mid-level quality, and we offer Sun servers with Solaris to customers who want the best quality and performance.
Posted by Marc Hamilton on October 23, 2007 at 06:56 AM PDT #
"We provide cheap white box servers to those who want the lowest cost solution, we offer HP servers to customers to want mid-level quality, and we offer Sun servers with Solaris to customers who want the best quality and performance."
What one can infer from that statement is that Sun is being sold as the top-priced, most expensive solution.
Sun needs to be promoted and sold as the dirt-cheap, low-cost, high volume, not as the most expensive solution.
Dirt-cheap and high volume. Customers have already voted with their dollars in DELL, IBM, and hp.
Sun Microsystems, it's your move.
Posted by UX-admin on October 23, 2007 at 12:42 PM PDT #
I have not compared all of Layeredtech's pricing models, they have a ton of options on their web site including Solaris on HP servers and some of their lowest cost dedicated servers do in fact include a $99/month "AMD Opterion" Solaris server, which I expect is a typo. But I would not infer from their CTO's statement that Solaris or Sun are the highest priced offerings. Plus, for startups, they offer special Sun Startup Essentials programs discounts on Sun Solaris servers which I expect actually make them lower cost than lower quality/performance competitors.
Posted by Marc Hamilton on October 23, 2007 at 02:35 PM PDT #
BTW, I did mean "Opterion" to be the typo, not "$99"
Posted by Marc Hamilton on October 23, 2007 at 02:45 PM PDT #