What is Your Favorite Solaris Server?
I'm actually glad that UX-admin commented in my previous blog entry that he likes running Solaris on Tyan. It is actually part of the business plan I wrote for Solaris in my previous job. That is why last year my team signed up IBM and Dell as Solaris OEMs. While we focused on OEM contracts with the big-name x86 vendors, we didn't forget the small guys like Tyan either. While we are happy to sign up any systems manufacturer, no matter what their size, as a Solaris OEM, we actually have a more efficient way to provide small x86 systems vendors a Solaris license. We simply signed up Intel as an OEM. In case the connection is not obvious, many small systems vendors buy not just their CPUs, but entire motherboards directly from Intel. Intel's Solaris OEM agreement with Sun lets them include a Solaris license with motherboards they sell to systems manufacturers. While I don't actually know if Tyan buys motherboards or Solaris licenses from Intel, they certainly could.
But back to the title line, I'd be interested in hearing what is your favorite Solaris server? While companies like Dell do a great job marketing Solaris, perhaps we missed one or two up and coming x86 systems vendors. Who knows, now that EDS, who manages many Solaris servers, has been purchased by HP, maybe they might even want to sign up as a Solaris OEM.
Of course Sun and Intel work together on a lot more than just systems and Solaris, like this:
Hi,
Has Sun forgotten about AMD ?
What about the AMD Phenom?
Regards,
Edward.
Posted by EdwardOCallaghan on September 13, 2008 at 12:20 PM PDT #
Quite the contrary, Sun has a broad line of both AMD and Intel based systems. Generally, most of our x86 server segments have choices of both AMD and Intel based servers. Compare:
Intel based x2150 vs AMD based x2200
Intel based x4150 vs AMD based x4140
Intel based x4450 vs AMD based x4440
while our Thumper hybrid data servers, the x4500 and x4540 use AMD processors exclusively.
Posted by Marc Hamilton on September 13, 2008 at 02:14 PM PDT #
Thank you for the link:
"You are here: USA > Large Business"
So, apparently according to DELL, Solaris is fit only for large businesses.
FALSE!
What if I'm NOT in the U.S.?
What if I'm NOT a megacorporation, but a small startup looking to leverage high tech in order to not break my small IT budget (remember, in Europe you ground a startup from your own wallet, there is no venture capital here)?
The European DELL website doesn't even provide any facilities to search or buy a Solaris-certified server, and if one goes to pick a server, Solaris will NOT be listed as a "preinstalled OS" choice!
There are *twelve* versions of "Windows Server 2003" to choose from, *seven* versions of "Windows Server 2008", and *eight* versions of "SuSE Enterprise Linux v10 EM64T", but DELL apparently doesn't believe Solaris is even worth putting on there as an option! Lovely!
And then people wonder why Solaris doesn't have any penetration in small and mid-size companies.
And BTW, hp and IBM aren't much better, either. You really have to dig DEEP and HARD in order to find anything about Solaris. It's like a "snake hiding its legs".
And while hp will support some of their hardware with Solaris drivers, one really has to dig and click and fight their way through the hp's website in order to download them.
All in all, I'm forced to conclude:
DISMAL. And it makes me really frustrated as a customer. I feel somehow discriminated because I'm running Solaris, and what I really should be feeling is pride and satisfaction for running the best operating system on the planet!
Posted by UX-admin on September 15, 2008 at 12:27 AM PDT #
Installing Solaris on Sun and 3rd party x86 servers (along with installing Windows and Linux) was recently greatly simplified with the latest release of the Sun Installation Assistant,
http://www.sun.com/systemmanagement/sia.jsp
which locates and installs drivers for a wide range of hardware platforms.
I should note that while HP may support Solaris drivers for some of their hardware, they cannot, legally, support Solaris on their hardware as they are not a Solaris OEM. If you are an HP customer, the only place you can legally get Solaris support from is from Sun.
While I hope that in the future you see better support and marketing for Solaris from our OEM customers, in fairness to Dell and IBM, they have been selling Windows for decades and Solaris only in the last year. And, will offering support for 19 versions of Windows may be a good thing for customers stuck with one of those versions of Windows, the very existance of 19 versions of Windows that someone has to support is, IMHO, a problem.
Posted by Marc Hamilton on September 15, 2008 at 07:50 AM PDT #
Also, an update on "startup essentials" program:
the program now seems to be available in select countries outside of the United States;
France, Germany, Sweden and UK are covered by the "startup essentials" program; the rest of the Europe is completely absent.
Perhaps Sun believes that the rest of Europe has no internet, no postal service to deliver the servers, and can't pay through an online store via a bank transfer or a credit card?
Who knows.
Posted by UX-admin on September 15, 2008 at 08:19 AM PDT #