Anyone else worried about the future of Sun?

From: Keg (rhugga_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/09/04 

Date: 9 Jul 2004 08:11:53 -0700

For starters I have been a Sun guy as far back as the old 100-lb Sparc
IPX systems and I still believe they make the best hardware on the
planet. However, I have been getting increasingly concerned with the
way they are operating lately.

Example 1: We were told that some of the mid-range equipment we bought
3 years ago would "Meet our database needs for 5 years or more". Now
our 3-year support contracts have expired and support for some of our
machines nearly tripled and they are now telling us the equipment is
old and we need newer gear. So now I am forced to get 3rd party
support, which generally sucks.

The Linux Issue:

I think Sun is dropping the ball badly. The only thing holding Linux
back as a larger player in the data center is the lack of enterprise
quality x86 hardware and the scheduling issues with the pre-2.6 linux
kernels. Both of those issues are quickly changing and Linux, in my
opiniion, is gonna be a larger player in the data center over the next
5 years. (our data center is already 50% Linux, excluding the 2
250-node linux clusters we have)

As an IT Director, I have no choice but to start moving towards Linux.
Why?
1) Support is orders of magnitude cheaper.
2) Replacement parts are usually a 10 minute drive away.
3) Replacement parts are cheap enough to keep on hand. (hell keep
entire spare systems on standby)
4) You don't need another 100k of Veritas software & support.
5) x86 based hardware is much easier and faster to troubleshoot and
repair. (and thus employed skillsets are cheaper and easier to find)

You can't ignore that the "real-world" TCO is much much lower with
Linux.

I know this message seems anti-Sun but it is not. I am devote Sun
user. Moving to Linux for me would be like an NFL veteran saying
goodbye to football after 15 years. I am very concerned and I don't
want Sun to fall to the wayside as IBM becomes the predominant Linux
player, which they ultimately will. It is likely that Linux will
become IBM pending the outcome of this SCO thing.

Right now Sun's only answer to Linux is to install a pre-existing
distribution onto a standard x86 hardware platform (which appears to
be the Cobalt stuff they bought back when) Why would anyone spend the
money for this hardware and support, when you can build a
top-of-the-line dual-Xeon RAID 0+1 system for under $2k with no extra
software (ie filesystem, software raid support/vol mgmt, system
management) or support needed?

I justed replaced some very heavily hit E450 NFS servers with dual 1.7
Ghz Xeon systems, 2GB RAM, and Adaptec SCSI cards for local system
disk mirroring. I needed no additional support for this config and
these systems can be maintained by any college intern. If I need a new
CPU or something I send one of my IT guys down the street to Comp-USA
or wherever.

Please Sun, get more proactive in the Linux space, it is the future,
whether anyone likes it or not. You can't survive on Java alone.

>From a persoanl career standpoint I have to start focusing my energies
on Linux so that I can keep myself employed in the next 5-10 years. I
honestly think, unless things change drastically, that Sun's future is
very bleak. I mean, if Sun can't sell gear to the techies that love
the stuff, what can they do?

I had budgeted for 3 4800's for Oracle database repacements for next
year, I am now testing viable Linux alternatives and so far it looks
promising. (and this is based on the 2.4 kernel with the poor
scheduler)

Just curious how everyone else felt on the subject. Recent discussions
with some Sr. Sun engineers here in San Diego also opened my eyes a
bit. Even some of Sun's own people feel the same way.

Just ranting I guess, I really like Sun's equipment but it is becoming
more and more difficult to put Sun gear into the Data Center,
especially with IT budgets today. To me, tripling support costs to
force customers into newer gear is un-ethical and I will take no part
in it.

-wc

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