The computing world at large appears to be shifting inexorably to a
state where vendors become nothing more than resellers of Intel and
Microsoft technology, differentiated only by the services, skills
and software they wrap around the Wintel bundle. The PC arena is
already at this stage - with the sole exception of Apple - and the
server world is the next big target for the Wintel alliance.
And things are already shifting. In addition to long-standing
Wintel allies such as Compaq and Dell, traditional Unix and
Risc-based vendors, such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, are taking
Microsoft and Intel servers on board and integrating them into
their product lines. In HP's case, it is also a co-developer of the
Intel 64-bit Itanium processor.
The notable exception in the server arena is Sun Microsystems,
which has concentrated exclusively on its Sparc architecture and
Solaris operating system and refused to become a Wintel accredited
reseller. Naturally, Sun's stance has earned it scorn and applause
within the industry, but it seems to be paying off - at least if
you believe John Davis, senior director of Sun's mid-range server
business.
The Sun strategy of offering a uniform processor and OS platform
across its product range contrasts with IBM, a big player in the
server space, which is not exclusively a Wintel partner but has
adopted more of a mix and match approach, encompassing Intel and
Risc and a number of operating systems such as Windows, Unix, OS390
and OS400.
While IBM views this as a strength by allowing customers to pick
the best technology for a particular task, Sun argues it is better
to have a single architecture. In this respect, Sun can be viewed
as the other side of the Microsoft and Intel coin. Microsoft would
probably say customers could have any operating system they liked,
so long as it was Windows, and its strategy has been to move
Windows up the scale to remove the requirement from customers to
choose any other operating system.
The attack on Wintel
With his main focus on the release
of the Sun Fire V880 entry-level workgroup and departmental server
(which can hold between two and eight UltraSparc III processors),
Davis is keen to address the perception that Wintel owns the
low-end server space. "We saw a significant opportunity in the
workgroup server market fours years ago when we introduced the
Enterprise 450. We've now got 21 per cent market share worldwide -
four years ago, it was tiny. In the most recent quarter, we were
the fastest growing company in the entry-level server space." And
he's confident Sun can make gains. With the V880, Sun sees the
eight-way Intel space "as a market where we can go in and capture
market share".
Davis argues the Intel eight-way market is attractive because Sun
has an advantage with its scalable processor and operating system
architectures, claiming there has not been a great deal of adoption
of the Intel machines because customers "can't scale the
architecture and the operating system. It gives us a great
advantage against the Wintel environment".
Another area for Sun to exploit is Intel's forthcoming transition
to the Itanium platform. When looking at four and eight-way
servers, Davis asks, why should customers invest in Intel when they
will have to upgrade to Itanium in a relatively short space of
time, leaving them with the inconvenience of swapping boxes and
recompiling applications?
Moving down the platforms
Among other claims against
rival Intel-based machines, Davis says the Sun Fire V880 is cheaper
than PC server pricing by 30 per cent or more, if you include the
cost of the Microsoft technology. One area where Sun hopes to cash
in on pricing and cost of ownership savings is server
consolidation.
Davis believes there is a huge opportunity for customers seeking to
consolidate their smaller Wintel servers. "In the Wintel
environment, you have to continually add machines. There's a high
cost of acquisition and system management. You can reduce the
acquisition and ongoing management costs and the remote management
capability is a key feature [of the V880] when you look at the
total cost of ownership."
He argues the competitive pricing is another advantage provided by
the scalability of the Sun architecture. "We can heavily exploit
our investment in the mid-range and high-range - we're not
developing from scratch [like Intel]. We're taking proven
technologies and bringing them to the entry-level market."
IBM, for one, does something very similar with the migration of
mainframe and AS/400 technology downwards, but Davis claims it is
at a disadvantage because it is having to deal with multiple
architectures. "It has proven technologies, but is trying to move
them to a totally different architecture [Intel]. So it has to
reinvent them and it doesn't control the architecture - Intel does.
We can do it much quicker and focus on cost reduction rather than
reinvention."
Davis suggests that in having to reinvent technology across a
number of different architectures, especially Intel, vendors such
as IBM can find themselves at a disadvantage to Sun: "When you
reinvent a proven technology on a different architecture, it's not
proven anymore."
By contrast, Sun has "developed the single architecture that can do
everything" and the Sun Fire machines "are meeting expectations at
all levels. We can provide and meet all market requirements on a
single architecture".
A fight for survival
Meanwhile, HP's proposed takeover
of Compaq is also giving Sun an opportunity because it has brought
about added confusion among customers over which products,
architectures and operating systems will survive if the deal
between the two vendors goes ahead. Davis quotes market research
figures which claim HP lost ten points in worldwide market share in
the entry-level server space in the last quarter.
He describes the V880 as "a great demonstration of how competitive
Sun can be in the entry-level server market space. It's one of many
products and our customers have responded in terms of market share
gains. We see future opportunities to take market share".
And to those who remain sceptical about Sun's future as a single
architecture company, he can't resist pointing out that before it
entered the workgroup server market four years ago, "analysts told
us it was totally Wintel and we shouldn't even try".