Q & A with Alan Duboff
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Q & A Insights from a Solaris x86 EvangelistTuesday, April 26, 11:00 AM EST About one year ago, Alan DuBoff, Solaris x86 Community Evangelist, joined Sun Microsystems as a Solaris x86 evangelist to work in Community Relations. In the following Q&A, Alan shares his thoughts on Sun's commitment to Solaris for x86 systems, Sun's x86 efforts since the 2003 May 19 Low Cost Computing Event and what he is most excited about with regard to the future of Solaris. Q: When did you join Sun Microsystems as an employee and what is your role at the company? A: I started working for Sun on May 19, 2003. This was the same day that Sun CEO Scott McNealy and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison shared the stage to announce their "low cost computing" strategy, under which the two companies announced that Oracle software would support the Sun Solaris OS x86 Platform Edition, Solaris SPARC and x86 Linux systems. I thought that was a pretty exciting milestone for Sun and Oracle to publicly show their commitment to and their full support of Solaris for x86 systems. As for my current role at Sun, I am a Solaris x86 Evangelist. I'm currently involved in various aspects, including working with some of the Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) who have been interested in creating device-driver development for Solaris for x86 systems. Another aspect of my role at Sun is Community Relations and I'm currently implementing some exciting community programs, such as forming workgroups around different areas -- storage, device drivers, compatibility and security -- aimed at engaging the community. The main goal of these workgroups will be to encourage feedback, resulting in a stronger community environment. Q: Before joining Sun, you were part of a group called the "Secret Six." Can you please explain what that group is and why you left? A: "Secret Six" was a term coined when the Solaris x86 Community put together a group of representatives to meet with Sun. The majority refer to them as the "x86 Reps." As part of the x86 Reps, I served as a Solaris x86 advocate and presented on how Sun could turn Solaris x86 into a profit center. A few months after this initial presentation, Sun reaffirmed its commitment to Solaris x86. I still am acting in a similar capacity to the community, just that now I work for Sun. Q: Looking back, how do you see Sun's Solaris x86 strategy has evolved? Do you feel the company is fully committed moving forward? A: Sun's Solaris x86 strategy is rock solid and a strategic part of Sun's future plans. Sun recently began to roll out its line of AMD Opteron-based servers - the Sun Fire V20z - and announced it would provide 64-bit Solaris support for these types of systems. This move raises the stakes for Solaris on x86 systems, and allows customers to take advantage of Solaris 32-bit mode today and to easily transition to simultaneous 32-bit and 64-bit computing in the future on the same low-cost commodity hardware. What's really exciting is the impact Solaris 10 is going to have on the x86 market. Q: How do you feel the company has shown its commitment? A: The Sun Java Enterprise System for Solaris SPARC and x86 systems are set for release at the same time. This has helped to bring parity for SPARC and x86, not just at the OS level, but at the software layer above it, making it one Solaris really, for multiple platforms. Recently, StarOffice 7 support for Solaris x86 systems was made available and Sun has also stated it would provide Solaris x86 support for the Java Desktop System. This really demonstrates that Sun is committed to the widespread use of Solaris x86, not only on the server, but on the client side as well. Furthermore, Sun will deliver Solaris 10 for SPARC and x86 systems at the same time, which is important to customers and the community. Q: What sort of internal resources does Sun have in place to support its goals for Solaris x86? How has this changed from previous years? A: More than 100 engineers are focused on further innovating on Solaris x86, and many are collaborating with ISVs and IHVs to develop software and device drivers on Solaris x86. With continued support from partners including AMD, Oracle, Sybase and BEA Systems, customers will have a full suite of supported applications for Solaris x86. Sun has a variety of x86 hardware products currently available, including the Sun Fire V20z server (Opteron-based), the Sun Fire V60x and V65x servers (Xeon-based), and the Sun Fire B100x and B200x blade servers, as well as plans to roll-out additional AMD Opteron-based servers later this year. By offering the market's most widely-adopted UNIX operating system - with its solid reliability and enterprise-class features - the tight integration between Solaris x86 and Sun's hardware offers a competitive advantage for Sun's x86 platforms. In addition to the portfolio of x86-based of hardware from Sun, Solaris also runs on third-party x86 systems, with more than 200 systems currently listed on the Solaris HCL. Q: How would you characterize community sentiment toward Sun and its support for Solaris on the x86 architecture? A: Community members that have previously expressed concerns about Sun's x86 strategy are now pleased with Sun's high level of commitment to Solaris x86 and the progress to date. For example, Sun continues to enhance its Solaris x86 strategy through expanded third-party hardware support (more than 200 platforms on the HCL today), compatibility with Linux, increasing the number software applications available (both open-source and enterprise), and through its plans to build 64-bit support for Solaris on Opteron-based systems, not to mention tons of innovation in Solaris 10. It's clear that Sun will continue to focus its resources on Solaris and customers in all vertical market segments are already realizing these benefits. Q: You mentioned the Solaris "HCL" a couple times. Why is this important? A: The HCL, or Hardware Compatibility List, is a really important tool for partners and customers. Basically, Sun is offering a free hardware certification test suite (HCTS) on Sun.com that allows integrators, system vendors and independent hardware vendors to self-certify their x86 platforms. Recently, Sun added a variety of new free features to the HCTS, including USB hard drive certification, IPv6 certification, enhancements to the Serial I/O certification, simplified installation process, bug fixes and PXE manual install testing. And over the past year, Sun has been aggressively recruiting partners to certify their x86 platforms for Solaris. Check out the full range of certified drivers and system configurations Sun is offering, in addition to supported third-party and open-source applications. Building on the company's commitment to customers and investment in its x86 business, Sun is also extending the benefits of Solaris for x86 systems through OEM distribution agreements, most recently with Rackable Systems. Look for more of these agreements in the future. Q: What would you say are customers' top three reasons for choosing the Solaris x86 operating platform?
Q: What are you most excited about with regard to the future of Solaris x86? A: Without a doubt, the most exciting effort inside Sun is the 64-bit Solaris support for AMD Opteron. While laptop support and full desktop support will be pretty exciting, running Solaris x86 on SMP Opteron systems will take the spotlight. Q: In addition to 64-bit Opteron support in Solaris, what is exciting about the next release of Solaris? A: With Solaris 10, Sun is introducing some ground breaking security, performance and reliability features. N1 Grid Containers are an innovative new technology that will enable security, resource and fault isolation, while process rights management will essentially reduce security vulnerabilities by providing developers with the opportunity to restrict an application's operations by assigning a granular, predefined set of privileges. DTrace, also on tap for Solaris 10, is a really cool new diagnostic tool for sys admins and developers that will help increase system performance and efficiencies. Customers have already had the chance to test and play with many of these features first hand through Sun's early-access program, Software Express for Solaris. Q: Sun recently announced a subscription pricing promotion for Solaris x86. Why would customers be interested in this? A: Through this promotion, we're taking another step to make it easy for our customers to deploy Solaris x86 in volume. The Solaris Enterprise Subscription x86 Promotion, which runs through the end of this calendar year, provides aggressive subscription pricing on any mix of Sun and third party 1-4 CPU servers. By purchasing volume subscription packages in quantities of 100, 500 and 2000, customers can now standardize on Solaris x86 for up to 70 percent off the list price of comparable Red Hat Enterprise Linux and up to 80 perfect off the comparable Microsoft Windows Server 2003 offerings. For more information: |
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