With an acquisition by IBM now out of the question, former Silicon Valley icon Sun Microsystems faces one challenge after another from competitors looking to eat into the Santa Clara company's market share.
Dell, which sells servers that run open-source Linux on Intel CPU chips, is taking aim at Sun's existing customers for its own servers, which run Sun's non-open-source Solaris operating system on Sun's Sparc processors. An supposedly independent study cited by Dell claims its PowerEdge R900 server runs Oracle 14 times faster than a Sun Fire V440. Whether the comparison is fair or not, Sun would benefit from having IBM's global footprint in enterprise-level services and IBM's marketing power to push back against Dell's claims. Sun does offer Intel architecture systems and an open-source version of Solaris.
Separately, Sun's chief open source officer complained last week that Google's App Engine development platform, which lets software developers build applications that run on Google's infrastructure, does not support the complete set of Java functions mandated by Sun's Java standard. A Google spokeswoman told the IDG News Service that Google hopes to "improve the product through the feedback of developers."
Ten years ago, Sun was the server provider of choice for dot-com companies hoping for large online audiences. Today, the company is struggling against falling enterprise sales and declining market capitalization. Moreover, Sun no longer has its former clout and rock-star status among Valley tech firms.
But there may be an upside to the failed IBM deal: When the economy comes back, Sun has a chance of reinventing itself. IBM did it, so why not?
Post new comment