Thanks to the Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 server -- Sun will be included in the newest edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.

Sybase IQ analytics server running on the Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 server has set a new Guinness World Record by powering the world’s largest data warehouse. This accomplishment was achieved using Sybase IQ, BMMsoft server and the Sun Data Warehouse Reference Architecture, comprised of a SPARC Enterprise M9000 server running the Solaris 10 Operating System (OS), with Sun StorageTek 6540 modular disk arrays.

The SPARC Enterprise M9000 server, the foundation for the
world's largest data warehouse, delivers mainframe-class reliability, 
availability and scalability (RAS) in an open system. In addition,
the SPARC Enterprise M9000 server is an ideal platform for virtualization
and consolidation and is optimized for 24/7 mission critical computing.
                                                                                                           

For more information on the Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 server and the Sun Data Warehouse Reference Architecture for Structured and Unstructured Data please visit: http://www.sun.com/servers/highend/m9000/ and http://www.sun.com/service/refarch/datawarehouse/


Click here for the press release on this new Guinness World Record.

JavaOne has always been about learning and having fun – and this was certainly the experience of 20 university and high school students who were lucky enough to join the Father of Java, James Gosling himself, for a private tour of the JavaOne pavilion on day three of the conference. We first checked out Project Blue Wonder, based on the Sun Java Real-Time System, where colored balls cycle through a complex circuit moved and sorted by motors and sensors, all controlled by a diskless, fan-less, single-board system.

We then moved onto the Java-powered Tommy Car created by Team Jefferson. This robotic, autonomous vehicle, which was a  DARPA Grand Challenge semi-finalist, was a huge hit with the students.

While chatting with the group, I discovered that two students from Fort Lewis College had driven 17 hours from Colorado just to attend JavaOne this year.

[Photo by Mary Grush, Campus Technology] 

It was inspiring to see our students and so many other young people at JavaOne, sharing their enthusiasm for Java technology and their excitement about the opportunities it could bring them. Here is a group photo.

Here are a couple of stories from two journalists who joined the tour.

- "Students Sound Off About Java," by Michael Singer

-"University Students and Researchers Enjoy JavaOne," by Mary Grush

When Sun launched Solaris 10 5/08 last week, a major part of the update to the OS stemmed from its collaboration with Intel on platform-tuned power management capabilities and optimized support for Intel processors and graphics technology. This week the Sun-Intel alliance has yielded yet another milestone, bringing open source Threading Building Blocks (TBB) support to both Solaris and the Sun Studio software toolchain.

TBB for Solaris will make it easier for developers to build threaded applications in C++ for newer multi-core processors, including Quad-Core Intel Xeon. Sun Studio software offers a complete integrated toolchain for Solaris and Linux platforms, including parallelizing compilers, performance and thread analysis tools, memory and code debuggers, NetBeans-based Integrated Development Environment, and more. TBB for Solaris will be included in the OpenSolaris repository in the near future.

Intel's Doug Fisher made the announcement during his "Innovations through Software" presentation today at the 2008 JavaOne conference.

A download of TBB for Solaris is available here, and you can learn about more Intel Threading Building Blocks for Open Source by visiting www.threadingbuildingblocks.org.

Sun's been named a great place to work in both the San Francisco Bay Area and in Greater Boston over the last week!

In the Bay Area, Sun is ranked #5 among large companies in the Bay Area Best Places to Work, which is issued by the Bay Area Business Journals.  In Boston, Sun was named one of the top 20 large companies to work for in the Greater Boston Best Places to Work, sponsored by the Boston Business Journal.

Today Sun was honored by InfoWorld as one of the Green 15: companies and organizations that have undertaken the best green-tech-oriented projects in the past year.  Sun was selected for our datacenter consolidation project, focused on Santa Clara, Calif, Bangalore, India and Blackwater, UK.  The Santa Clara datacenter alone reduced power capacity demand by 75 percent.  And the project saved Sun $1.1M per year in energy costs.  Check out the article here.

This morning I got an email from our vice president of eco responsibilty Dave Douglas that was an inspiring start to Earth Day.  Dave says that he's approached weekly by employees at Sun wondering if the eco team is hiring.  And he tells them, "you already have an eco job!"  If we each bring our personal passion for eco responsibilty to work, we can look at all of our projects and responsibilities in a new green light.  Dave wrote about this idea in Environmental Leader a couple weeks ago.  Read his column here.

As Earth Day rolls around, I've been giving some thought to how I can reduce my carbon footprint and how that can - and should - extend to the companies with whom I choose to do business. Over the coming years I imagine we'll all be much more aware of how "eco" the makers of our consumer goods are and by extension how willing we are to buy from them. 

At Sun, we're starting to see this trend in the enterprise space too.  Not only are customers asking what type of company Sun is  and what we are doing to reduce our impact on the environment, but they are also interested in learning how Sun can help them meet their goals in becoming more sustainable.  Companies are recognizing that everything they do from reducing overall consumption (paper, utilities, office supplies) to building energy efficient datacenters and greening their supply chain can help them achieve these goals.

Consider this ...

In August the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that U.S. corporations and public agencies spent $4.5 billion to power their data centers in 2006, a figure that is expected to grow to a whopping $7.4 billion by 2011.  We've heard this before and yes, the projected growth is stunning.  But, here is something brand spanking new to share ...

A new survey by CIO2CIO shows that ONLY 20% of companies describe their energy usage as very efficient or efficient and 26% rate the importance of monitoring the cost of energy as a 4 or 5 (out of a possible 5)!  This tells us that a lot of companies are still in the very early stages of assessing their energy consumption and its impact on the environment and their bottom line.  

If you're interested in hearing more about the tools, solutions and methodologies Sun has developed to assess efficiency in your datacenter visit http://sun.com/ecoinnovation

Sun Microsystems among Leading Tech Partners at Web Mission 2008

Sun Startup Essentials is a tech partner at Web Mission 2008 this weekend where 20 UK Web 2.0 companies will travel to San Francisco to explore new opportunities for growth with key people in Silicon Valley. The event will showcase innovative UK web talent and provide a platform for those involved to gain valuable media and business exposure.

"Sun Startup Essentials is proud to be a technology partner of Web Mission 2008 and of our role assisting UK companies seeking increased awareness in the US community," said Juan Carlos Soto, Vice President, Global Market Development and Engineering for Sun. "It is exciting to see the breadth of innovations from UK startup companies and imagine their role shaping the future of the Web around the world."

As part of its continued commitment to startups around the world, Sun has successfully launched its Startup Essentials program. The global program, which has already seen over 2,300 applications since the initial launch in the U.S. in November of 2006;has also launched in Canada, China, India, U.K., France, Germany, Israel.

Startups around the world are constantly searching for new ways to become more efficient with their limited resources, while at the same time planning for long-term successes. Sweden, amongst one of the largest VC investment funding bases in EMEA, is a perfect fit for the Sun Startup Essentials program as it is one of the most connected countries worldwide.

The program, which is free of charge, aims to help young technology companies adapt and grow in cost-effective ways by providing access to industry leading technology and the world's fastest, most energy-efficient servers. Companies based in Sweden who are less than 4 years old and have a maximum of 150 employees are eligible for the program. More information can be found here: se.sun.com/startup

The move toward multi-core architectures is creating a new opportunity for developers, says Sun Systems EVP John Fowler. And as Sun launches its third generation CMT systems with the SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers, Fowler talks about the tools, technologies and systems that are shaping this new opportunity.

A message from John Fowler, Executive Vice President, Systems Group, Sun Microsystems:                                                                                                                                                                                                    

All of Sun's CMT systems including the SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 announced today, are available for a 60-day FREE trial through Sun's Try and Buy program.

More information on Sun's FREE developer tools including Sun Studio 12 is available here.

While you're at it check out Sun's Try and Buy program to find out how you can take one of Sun's systems for a FREE test drive: http://www.sun.com/tryandbuy/index.jsp.

Click here to check out what else John Fowler had to say about Multi-Cores in an interview for Dr.Dobb's Journal.

The third generation CMT SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers announced today deliver breakthrough performance and scalability and enable customers to consolidate the datacenter into an ultra-dense, energy efficient compute environment, optimized by the Solaris Operating System. In fact, the SPARC Enterprise T5240 server beats all dual-socket x86 systems on enterprise-class applications including Java, ERP, mail and OLTP databases, helping customers to deliver new services and enterprise computing capabilities with higher performance at lower cost.

But don't take our word for it -- try it out yourself -- for FREE.

Customers can test drive the new Sun SPARC Enterprise T5140 and T5240 servers in a free 60-day trial through Sun's Try and Buy program. You pay nothing - not even shipping, and if you decide to buy your trial system buy at special discount pricing.

The Government Computer News (GCN) Best of FOSE Awards were open to any FOSE 2008 exhibiting company that was showcasing a new product to be used in the public sector. GCN's editors and technology analysts reviewed the new products during FOSE show hours and chose the winners based on the following criteria: innovation; usability/application to government; relative performance based on specifications; and value.

Click here to read the entire Best of FOSE article.

As MySQL employees begin to onboard at Sun, many new faces arrived this morning at the Menlo Park and Santa Clara campuses.  More than 400 plastic inflatable dolphins -- reperesenting all of the MySQL staff joining Sun's new Database Group -- magically appeared in the courtyards between buildings.

Sakila, MySQL's playful marine mammal mascot, was unavailable for comment.

On Tuesday afternoon, Sun's Bay Area employees are invited to adopt as many of the toys as they would like.  All unclaimed dolphins will be donated to charity.

Last night at Sun's Menlo Park campus, The Paley Center for Media and Springboard Enterprises held the Silicon Valley launch of ALLTHINGSMEDIA—the first venture capital forum to showcase women-led media companies. Hosted by Jonathan Schwartz, the event brought together VCs, startups, media companies for a celebration of Springboard's longtime support of women entrepreneurs and The Paley Center's recognition of women's contribution to media.

Kay Koplivitz, Jonathan Schwartz, & Patricia Mitchell

Sun boardmember and head of The Paley Center, Pat Mitchell kicked off the event, and Kay Koplovitz of Springboard Enterprises spoke about ALLTHINGSMEDIA and how women entrepreneurs can get involved.  Jonathan talked about Sun's dedication to media companies and support of startups throughout its history.

For more info and to apply for the forum, visit Springboard Enterprises' website.

Two weeks ago FORTUNE's listing of America's Most Admired companies list was published, and today it published its World's Most Admired companies list.

And Sun is on that list!  As with the America's list, Sun's scores improved in every category. Our ranking within the Computers category jumped from #8 to #6 this year and the company’s overall score improved .47 of a point.

Looking at the improvement over two years is equally impressive, including a seven place rise in Innovation, a six position jump in Financial Soundness and Long-term investment and a five position jump in our rank among computer companies, people management and global competitiveness.

Full details on Sun’s ranking are here.

Sun is sponsoring a new contest (with prizes!) for Sun and non-Sun bloggers who bust myths about Sun's Web offerings. There's a new myth every month with a $250 prize for the winner in each category. For details, go to www.sun.com/mythbusting. And good luck!