Sun Just Says No To NT, Stays In Unix Firmament
Date: 7/3/97
Author: Russ Britt
Investors Business Daily, Inc.
Sun Microsystems Inc. doesn't care if it's the final holdout - the company won't offer Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT software.
That's the edict from on high at Mountain View, Calif.-based Sun, even as the last of its compatriots in Unix operating systems consider defecting. Like many others, Sun has toyed with the idea of creating a
Windows NT solution.
It has even gone so far as to conduct secret tests on a possible NT product, sources close to Sun say.
The company, however, has rejected the idea. Sources say Chairman and Chief Executive Scott McNealy and Ed Zander, president of Sun's computer division, would rather stick with the company's Solaris operating system for its higher margins and perceived technical
advantages.
''Being an NT reseller doesn't deliver any value to our customers,'' said Steve McKay, vice president and general manager of Sun's Solaris products group. ''We think there's a need for a more scalable, reliable alternative.''
That could mean a lonely road ahead for Sun, which prides itself on being a thorn in the side of Microsoft of Redmond, Wash., and its ally, chip giant Intel Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif. Unix system makers such as Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif., and Digital
Equipment Corp. of Maynard, Mass., have adopted NT over the last few years.
Even workstation maker Silicon Graphics Inc., of Mountain View, has said it is considering possible NT configurations in future systems. Other than Sun, SGI is the last Unix-only hardware maker.
Sun acknowledges that it must at least try to coexist with the increasingly popular NT.
''Our position on NT is that we're going to compete with it, and we're also going to interoperate with it,'' McKay said. ''We have to make sure we interoperate with Microsoft.''
To counter NT, Sun has spruced up its Solaris operating system, its first update of Solaris in roughly 18 months.
The latest version, Solaris 2.6, boasts more than 100 new features, including a built-in tutorial that guides users through installation. Other than its higher price, another criticism against Solaris has been that it's too difficult to understand.
The new version also sports improvements in graphics, network security and compatibility with Intel-based hardware. Solaris 2.6 is scheduled to ship in August.
Sun is trying to market Solaris 2.6 as more than just an operating system for workstations and servers. The company is looking to increase its presence on Intel-based servers and PCs.
A version of Solaris has been available for Intel- based machines for several years. However, it hasn't sold well.
Sun hopes companies will be attracted to an operating system that can span the enterprise -from giant servers to ordinary desktop systems.
''It's the same car, but tuned differently for each of these Solaris users,'' said Brian Croll, Sun's director of marketing.
Microsoft, though, is pursuing the very same strategy. And NT has some wind at its back.
Last year, worldwide NT server sales jumped 84% to 725,000, according to International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass. During the same period, Unix server sales climbed just 12% to 602,000 ee chart).
Of those Unix servers, 56,000 were Sun machines, up 40% from 40,000 the year before, IDC says.
In the workstation market, Unix also gave up its lead. Worldwide NT shipments rose 46% to 716,000 in '96 from 491,000 in '95, says IDC. Unix systems were nearly flat, going to 712,653 in '96 from 711,390 in '95.
Sun systems with Solaris went up 9% to 295,518 in '96 from 271,000 in '95. While Solaris is the dominant operating system among Unix workstation users, the NT threat has forced Sun and other Unix makers to drop prices.
Sun's workstation revenue - for years its bread and butter - slipped 1% from $3.74 billion in '95 to $3.69 billion in '96, IDC says. Sales for all Unix workstations dropped 8% from $12.2 billion in '95 to $11.2 billion in '96.
Microsoft says its operating system software usually costs one-third to one-half that of Solaris and other Unix software. Microsoft is planning NT versions for enterprise systems, including large databases that can handle two terabytes of information or more.
Richard Tong, Microsoft's vice president of marketing, says it will offer significant price discounts on these new NT enterprise versions.
''While there are companies happy to pay double the price, many are saying, 'Why should I pay double when I don't have to,' '' Tong said.
The knock against NT, however, has been its inability to take on complex tasks and heavy traffic. Microsoft Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Gates recently touted the scalability of NT at an event held in New York. But analysts say it has a long way to go to catch
up with Solaris.
NT is winning out in volume, but it takes more NT servers to equal the capability of one Solaris-based server, says Jean Bozman, an IDC analyst. A Unix server can accommodate many more processors than
an NT server, she says.
''What NT is going for is volume,'' Bozman said. ''Volume is one way to look at (the market), but it's not the only way.''
Research shows Unix still won by a long shot in '96 revenue: $30.2 billion in workstations and servers vs. the $7.2 billion that NT posted, says IDC.
''I think Sun has become the de facto Unix standard,''said John Oltsik, an analyst with market research firm Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. ''Although NT has penetrated the Unix space, there still is a lot of Unix space to be had.'' |
