Sun's Open Network System is a modular system design approach integrating leading technologies across Sun's portfolio in networking, storage, compute and software.
This is a very interesting announcement from Sun. First of all, the architecture is very similar to what was recently announced by Cisco. That is, the integration of a virtualized network infrastructure with computers (including the new Intel Xeon 5500 – Nehalem) and storage onto a single piece of hardware, albeit a blade enclosure.
It also has some of the elements of IBM’s iDataPlex and Cool Blue offerings, including cooling doors for the cabinets using water or refrigerant gas.
But what makes this announcement truly compelling is looking at it as an Oracle database and applications platform. Think about it:
Racks of databases and applications running on virtualized Linux or Solaris OS servers with Sun Open Storage for virtually limitless storage capacity and connected via virtualized or InfiniBand ultra high bandwidth networking. Throw in some Windows and VMware and you’re talking about a very powerful value proposition for many customers.
Challenges to all three competitors: Cisco, HP and IBM.
Cisco is challenged because there’s less apparent uniqueness to their UCS offering. Regardless of other factors, Sun is an established server and storage hardware vendor with a large installed base and usually happy customers. Loosing the uniqueness of UCS makes breaking into the server and storage market just so much more difficult for Cisco.
HP is challenged because they don’t have the fully integrated stack for their blade systems yet, and more importantly don’t have the application software stack that Oracle/Sun could bring to the table. HP has yet to enunciate their response to Cisco UCS. Now, they may have to take Sun seriously again. And, of course, the value of the hardware bundling deals with Oracle is even more threatened.
IBM’s challenges are of a different order. The recent IBM/Brocade and IBM/Juniper networking deals point to IBM’s greatest areas of weakness. IBM does have the software stack and the storage and server platforms to match up well. They also have the green credibility to compete with Sun there. But the combined Oracle/Sun platform could still be a challenge, especially with companies for whom IBM’s centralized enterprise computing culture is not a great fit.
Even with the down economy, IT competition is really heating up.
