##CONTINUE##
For several years now the computer industry has been in an era where bigger is better. So it should come as no surprise that two days after Cisco Systems said it is jumping into the server business, reports have emerged that IBM may try to acquire Sun for Rs.32,317.47 crore ($6.5 billion).
Massive and highly integrated data centres from Internet giants such as Amazon.com, Google and Microsoft hold increasing sway in the server business that is the sole focus for IBM and Sun. These Internet data centres will host a growing share of the world's applications in the emerging cloud computing era, and they want fewer vendors with broader and deeper offerings.
That's why Cisco believes it has an opportunity to wrap its switches together with servers in a novel architecture that will gain traction. The few details available on the offerings Cisco will debut starting in April suggest the company has done its homework on how to provide some unique value for data centre operators in hot areas such as virtualisation and unified networking.
Cisco's play puts added pressure on existing computer makers, and Sun long has been the most vulnerable of the top tier players and thus most ripe for consolidation. Since the dot.com bust, the company has shed staff in several reorgs as it struggled to regain profitability.
Sun's troubles stem in large part from the fact it is one of the smallest of the vertically oriented computer makers, trying to support its own microprocessor and OS architecture. In the bigger is better era, that's a bad spot to be in.
If it goes ahead, an IBM-Sun combination will be the biggest consolidation step in computing since Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq—and the cultural dissonance will be every bit as bad. Big Blue is legendary for its conservatism while Sun has long been the industry maverick.
The contrast is clear from its CEOs on down. IBM's Sam Palmisano is all business and rarely in the limelight. Sun's Jonathan Schwartz is one of high tech's most popular bloggers and a self-styled open-source visionary.
Consolidation impact
An IBM-Sun combination raises several interesting technology questions underneath the business and cultural issues.
It is easy to imagine IBM might let the Sparc microprocessor architecture die a gradual death, articulating a road map to its Power and X86 systems. That's just part of the consolidation game in an industry that has winnowed out dozens of interesting but relatively low volume CPUs.
But the Niagara version of Sparc for Web servers has pioneered work in multi-core processing. It sports the most threads and integration of any chip in the server space with embedded crypto and networking cores.
An overdue Rock chip planned to push the boundaries in multi-core for database processing. It was described as leading the way in news areas such as transactional memory and scout threads.In the practical hands of a Palmisano, those pioneering efforts will probably wither on the vine. But the ideas they proved out could well appear in a Power8 or Power9 design with new marketing names attached to them. IBM might even consider using a Sparc core as an accelerator for legacy Sun workloads in a future Power chip.
An IBM/Sun combination might finally free up Java. Despite all its talk about openness, Sun over-managed and controlled the technology around its programming language seeking ways to make money from it up to the recent release of its JavaFX. That often caused clashes with some of the big OEMs who wanted to use Java as a wedge against Microsoft in everything from cell phones to set-top boxes and servers.
If the merger goes through, IBM should find a home for Java in a neutral standards body such as IEEE. The language and the technology around it will have a clearer, cleaner role to play if it is truly open.
If Sun is acquired, no doubt many engineers will be out on the street at a difficult time. But some of Sun's top talent has already moved on. Last year, co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim left for the start-up world and David Yen who ran many of Sun's pioneering efforts joined Juniper Networks.
Perhaps the biggest lesson Sun may have taught the industry is how far you can go in open source—and how little it apparently means to customers. Under Schwartz, Sun made its Solaris OS and even its Sparc architecture available for anyone to adopt, adapt and drive forward. The company got virtually no takers.
In some ways, an IBM-Sun merger would mark the end of the independent, vertically integrated computer company. In other ways it would mark the beginning of a new and very different wave of consolidation.
Cisco's entry into the server business puts pressure on networking companies such as Brocade and Juniper to deliver a full set of data centre systems, including server blades. That could send them running to the doors of some of the second tier server makers such as Fujitsu-Siemens. And so, the consolidation continues.
What the deal could mean for India
According to the Indian daily newspaper Business Standard, an IBM-Sun deal could impact the 1,200-odd Indian employees of Sun in the long run due to platform and technology consolidation.
"IBM will be the clear market leader (if the deal pushes through) in the server market in India, dominated by HP. But there will be conflict of platforms for IBM," said an analyst.
India is a significant market for Sun Microsystems. According to data from Dataquest India, Sun India has consistently witnessed around 30 per cent q-on-q growth in the country. The India R&D centre also played an important role in creating IP. From the total 11,000 patents awarded, over 170 are from the Bangalore centre.
For engineers working at Sun India, the possible IBM-Sun deal is much more than just an acquisition. A Business Standard source says, "It's about the culture that Sun promotes. Some of the people working at Sun India have never shifted to any other firm."
-----------------------------BY Rick Merritt
Source：EE Times
with inputs from Kaecee Alvarez,EE Times-India
Copyright © 2009 eMedia Asia Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without the express written permission of eMedia Asia Ltd. is prohibited. Warning: The images on this site are protected by digital watermark technology.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment