Sun Becomes a Windows

 
 
By Peter Galli  |  Posted 2007-09-12 Email Print this article Print
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Server 2003 OEM"> The move also had less to do with the competitive environment and more about the fact that 100 percent of Suns customers ran both Solaris and Windows and so it was a "very natural thing for us to work together on these technologies," he said. Microsofts Lees noted that its virtualization solution already supported Linux and so it was natural to have it support Solaris and for Sun to make sure that Windows worked effectively in a Solaris virtualized solution as well. "I wouldnt say the reason for this move was competitive, but rather a natural evolution of where we have been and what we are doing."
Sun and Microsoft also plan a joint support process for customers using these virtualization solutions to ensure that Windows and Solaris provide a solid virtualization experience.
Asked if Sun planned to support Microsofts Virtual Hard Disk image format specification, Fowler said that the company was looking closely at the standardization efforts underneath virtualization and always made a strong effort to adopt standards. "I think VHD is obviously still under evaluation and revision." Read more here about the interoperability lab Microsoft and Novell have opened in Cambridge, Mass. The two companies also plan to build an Interoperability Center on Microsofts Redmond, Wash. campus. The center will include a demonstration area for Sun x64 systems, act as a working lab for Windows on Sun benchmarks and sales tools, and support customers running proofs of concept for projects focused on Windows on Sun x64 systems, including joint Sun/Microsoft solutions in areas like databases, e-mail and messaging, virtualization, and Remote Desktop Protocol support in Sun Ray thin clients. The Interoperability Center will expand Suns presence on the Microsoft main campus, where some of its systems are currently showcased and customer-tested in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center. The two firms will also continue to collaborate on advancing the global deployment of the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV and multimedia platform on Sun server and storage systems, Lees said, pointing to an AT&T solution that uses Suns hardware for IPTV on the Microsoft platform. This expanded interoperability agreement builds on the initial cooperation agreement that was signed by the two companies in April 2004. It resulted in joint collaboration on interoperability for Web services, identity management, thin clients, systems management and Windows Server engineering. Read more here about Sun and Microsofts interoperability Tango. The two companies have also created a basis for tighter interoperability between Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE), the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.0 and Windows Communication Foundation in Suns Web services interoperability technologies, known as Project Tango. Sun is also a member of the Microsoft Interoperability Vendor Alliance and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.


 
 
 
 
Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.

He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.

He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.

He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.

He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.

He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.

His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.

For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

 
 
 
 
 
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