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 Ease of use, familiarity, and cost-effectiveness have made the AMP stack a wildly popular platform for Web tier development. When it comes to deployment, you want to ensure your Web applications enjoy the greatest performance, scalability, reliability, and security that an operating system can supply.
Enter Sun's SAMP stack. Strengthened by the May 2008 debut of the OpenSolaris operating system and Sun's acquisition of the MySQL database, SAMP — the Solaris OS, Apache HTTP Web server, MySQL, and the PHP/Perl/Python scripting languages — is generating new attention as a premier open source platform for Web tier development and deployment.
And now Sun is sweetening the package further with new support for all 12 SAMP stack components, giving enterprises a single source of production-level SAMP support. Announced at the OSCON open source conference in Portland, Oregon, this July, Sun's expanded support covers Apache, PHP/Perl/Python, Ruby, Squid, Tomcat, Memcached, lighttpd, and others. Sun already provided support for Solaris OS/OpenSolaris and MySQL.
"If you're running your business or Web applications on the Sun AMP stack and need support, all you have to do is call us. We'll help you with Apache, we'll help you with PHP or Perl or Python, we'll help you with MySQL, and we'll help you with Solaris" said Carl Ray, Sun infrastructure marketing manager. "It adds up to a complete, end-to-end open source AMP platform of software, hardware, and support."
Plenty of developers are familiar with the SAMP value proposition. When Sun first introduced the stack in 2007, downloads shot up 2700 percent in three months, and many thousands of packages continue to be downloaded. Analysts and reviewers have taken notice as well.
Sun has worked with the open source community to optimize a "Cool Stack" of AMP and other popular open source applications for OpenSolaris as well as the chip multithreading technology (CMT) in Sun UltraSPARC processors.
"Sun continues to reinvent itself..." reviewer Clay Ryder wrote in U.K.-based The Register. "By packaging Solaris-proven version of the most popular open source applications and tools, offering recipes for success, and backing it all up with a modestly priced support package, Sun has made itself germane to [the Web 2.0] market segment."
The Sun AMP stack got another boost in early 2008 with Sun's $1 billion acquisition of a key component — the MySQL database. "MySQL is certainly the de facto standard for companies in the Web space that use collaboration and blogs and wikis to run their business," Ray said. "Eventually, they become concerned about scalability and unpredictability, and Sun can address that with quality enterprise service and support."
If you're new to AMP or running the LAMP version with Linux, it's worth a look at highlights of how SAMP can enable you to rapidly build and deploy high-powered Web applications.
Open Source Applications, Optimized for OpenSolaris and CMT
Sun has worked with the open source community to optimize a "Cool Stack" of AMP and other popular open source applications for OpenSolaris as well as the chip multithreading technology (CMT) in Sun UltraSPARC processors, featured in energy-efficient Sun CoolThreads servers.
Users can download Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python, Ruby, Tomcat, and other applications and tools designed to take advantage of Solaris OS and CMT technologies. "The bits are pre-optimized to run on Sun platforms," said Joe McCabe, Sun senior technical product manager for the Web. "That reduces development cycles and gives them added performance right out of the gate."
DigiTar, a Web 2.0 company that provides messaging processing and security, is among the organizations leveraging the Sun stack. Atop a Solaris 10 OS platform, DigiTar has consolidated eight HP servers onto two Sun Fire T2000 CoolThreads servers to realize 4.5 times greater performance, an 83 percent reduction in power consumption and heat, and 75 percent less in operating costs for MySQL applications.
"We improve performance so much and reduce costs in so many ways with the T2000 that it
represents a 10x improvement in price/performance for our entire architecture," said Jason Williams, DigiTar CTO.
Enterprise-Caliber Solaris OS Features
On the flip side of AMP's popularity, questions have lingered over which operating system is best for running AMP-based Web applications. With the transition to Web 2.0 and its importance in driving business and revenue, the performance, scalability, reliability, and security of the underlying OS becomes paramount.
OpenSolaris, or the Solaris 10 OS, answers the question decisively. Sun's venerable platform offers the industry's best OS performance and unique and powerful functionality that helped it net an InfoWorld 2008 Technology of the Year Award for "Most Innovative Server OS." For instance, the Dynamic Tracing (DTrace) observability framework enables users to troubleshoot performance issues in real time. Built-in Containers virtualization technology supports application consolidation and reduced energy and space costs. Other features include:
GlassFish App Server: More Web Tier Flexibility
Open source, of course, means more choice and flexibility. Developers often mix and match AMP stack components — for instance, programming in Ruby or running the PostgreSQL database. The open source GlassFish application server — the Java Enterprise Edition 5 reference implementation — presents another option, especially for organizations invested in Java technology.
Increasing support for Ruby, Groovy, and other dynamic languages is making GlassFish an attractive open source development platform, and the newly released GlassFish v3 technology preview features a completely new approach with a highly modular, lightweight, extensible architecture that streamlines development and deployment.
If you're looking to strengthen the scalability and security of your Web infrastructure, get started with these easy five steps:
1. Get OpenSolaris or the Solaris 10 OS
The new OpenSolaris binary distribution features a network-based Image Packaging System that speeds integration with third-party applications and a next-generation installer that boots into a GNOME desktop to simplify installation on laptops or PCs. With GNU utilities such as the "bash" interactive shell, OpenSolaris is available for free download at www.opensolaris.com, or you can order a free OpenSolaris LiveCD. Also free for download is Sun's traditional Solaris distribution, the Solaris 10 OS.
2. Get the AMP Cool Stack Optimized for Solaris
Sun Cool Stack binaries are optimized for Solaris OS and CMT technology and deliver between 30 to 200 percent improvement over standard binaries. This collection of commonly used open source applications and tools includes several packages in the Solaris pkgadd format, so you can install just the ones you need.
3. Get Sun Servers For Maximum Performance
Try SAMP applications on the industry's fastest, most scalable, most energy-efficient systems, and discover how Sun technology can make their performance scream. SAMP applications can run on existing systems, since Solaris OS technology is supported on the industry's broadest set of x86/x64 and UltraSPARC servers — more than 888 platforms, including Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron.
Sun UltraSPARC and x64 servers are available to try for 60 days at no cost or risk under Sun's Try and Buy program. For qualified early-stage companies, the Sun Startup Essentials program offers discounts of up to 70 percent on Sun systems.
4. Get Cool Tools for Web-Tier Optimization
Built with open source contributions, Sun's free Cool Tools give you everything you need to build Web applications, including compilers, command line tools and a NetBeans-based integrated development environment (IDE) for application development, debugging, performance analysis, and optimization. Cool Tools are designed to make it easy for you to seamlessly optimize your Web tier environment with Solaris OS technology and Sun CMT or x64 servers.
5. Get Expert Support to Make the Most of Your Web Infrastructure
Build your SAMP-based Web infrastructure rapidly and confidently with Sun Developer Expert Assistance Service. This dedicated online support service for developers provides technical assistance for code support, diagnostic advice, and answers to programming questions. With expertise about each component in the SAMP stack, Sun's SAMP support offerings give you end-to-end service to make the most of your Web tier.
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