Finally, SUNW is making a right move. Working with NT is almost the only way for SUNW to survive. Otherwise, SUNW will be vanishing. SUNW, especially the CEO guy--Scott McNealy, should just give up their wild dream that they can kill Microsoft. What I am concerned is that SUNW might be killed instead.
This is a good news for SUNW share holders.
Sun plans to work with NT
By Randy Weston
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 9, 1998, 12:10 p.m. PT
update Sun Microsystems is eating crow but it
could end up tasting like fillet mignon.
Backing off its long-time
public policy of shunning
Microsoft's Windows
NT platform, Sun
announced today at its
Enterprise Computing
Forum in New York
plans to make its Solaris
Unix-server capable of
handling network
services that come with
the rival Windows NT
operating system. Sun
also unveiled a
coprocessor card for its
Ultra workstations that will allow users to run
Microsoft Windows and DOS applications on their
systems and plans to link its entire line of storage
systems to Windows NT.
The move could give Sun a boost in sales as users
look for away to make NT a more scalable
alternative to Unix-systems.
It's a far cry from the days when Sun chief
executive Scott McNealy called NT a "hairball" of
a system.
"What Sun's really done is made Solaris able to
behave and act like an NT server," said Jim
Garden, analyst at Technology Business Research,
in Hampton, New Hampshire. "Sun is bowing
down to embrace hairball users and refuting its
one-time NT never strategy."
The move could give Sun a boost in sales as users
look for a way to make NT a more scalable
alternative to Unix-systems.
"NT doesn't scale," Garden added. "Sun is hoping
to plug that hole. Solaris, with this new capability,
could offer the scalability that NT could never offer
its users. It is also likely to reduce users' need for
technical support and operations. Sun could go to
companies and say, 'You know those hundred NT
servers you have spread out everywhere, we could
replace them with one Starfire system,' Sun's
high-end Ultra Enterprise system. How many
administrators does it take to run hundreds of NT
servers vs. one central server? If you want to
centralize the resources, this could really cut down
on costs."
"Our customers have been asking us for better
Microsoft interoperability while at the same time
expressing concern about the absence of reliability
and scalability in Windows NT environments," said
Masood Jabbar, president of Sun Computer
Systems. "Our two-pronged approach creates a
unique opportunity that could translate into
incremental server, storage, and desktop revenue
for Sun."
And Sun is doing this without giving away any of
the marketplace to its rival Microsoft. All of Sun's
new products are designed to simply stretch Sun's
existing server systems to handle Microsoft
compatible products.
Code-named Project Cascade, Sun hooked up
with AT&T to develop a means of letting native
Microsoft NT services run on top of Solaris. Sun is
using AT&T's Advanced Server for Unix systems
to allow Solaris to handle authentication, directory
services, and file/print tasks. According to Sun,
these tasks are the leading ones that drive users to
Windows NT.
The move is only the latest in a series of plays by
the Unix systems giant to embrace NT without
having to offer systems based on the Microsoft
operating system. Sun has launched previous efforts
to integrate with NT-based networks and has also
discounted workgroup versions of its own
hardware and software so it can become an
attractive alternative to NT.
Analyst Jim Oltsik at Forrester Research in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, said it was a necessary
move on Sun's part if it didn't want to lose market
share to its rivals, be it Microsoft or other Unix
shops like Hewlett-Packard. "Underneath the
Jihad-like rhetoric [at Sun] there were always
people at the grassroots developing interoperability
tools," Oltsik said. "What Sun has done is gone
public with that policy. It was a prudent move for
Sun. Solaris is doing well but NT is making great
strides The NT market is growing in the 30 percent
range while the Unix market is growing in the 15
percent to 20 percent area."
Oltsik added that more and more companies are
mixing their environments and in the era of the
Internet, all vendors need to see to it that their
products will work with others if they want to sell
products.
The SunPCi coprocessor card is designed to end
the need for users of its Ultra Workstation to also
run a PC at their desks or use emulation software
to run Windows or DOS-based software such as
Microsoft Office products. It is designed to work
with only newer PCi-based Sun workstations,
however.
Project Cascade is scheduled for early customer
shipment in November. The full rollout with pricing
is scheduled to be announced early next year.
Pricing and availability of the SunPCi is to be
announced later this year. No time line was given
for the storage products.
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