Market Roundup Fujitsu Introduces Itanium-Based PRIMEQUEST Mainframe Systems for Linux and Windows Sun to Elect Final Members of the Governing Board for OpenSolaris Initiative |
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Fujitsu Introduces Itanium-Based PRIMEQUEST Mainframe Systems for Linux and Windows
Fujitsu, with Intel, Microsoft, Red Hat, and Oracle, this week unveiled Fujitsu’s PRIMEQUEST high-performance mission-critical server line, combining enterprise data center high availability and scalability in an Itanium-based Linux and Windows Server solution. PRIMEQUEST servers are designed for large-scale database applications and online transaction processing environments. The PRIMEQUEST server chip set delivers two key high-availability technologies: System Mirror and Flexible I/O (FIO). System Mirror allows memory modules and crossbar interconnects to operate in duplex mode and isolate errors without causing systems faults. FIO allows redirection of I/O to specific processing tasks, matching realtime performance requirements, to avoid operations disruption. Fujitsu is also committed to providing optimal infrastructure for business agility through its TRIOLE strategy, encompassing virtualization, automation, and integration. Fujitsu will introduce TRIOLE PRIMEQUEST server templates, enabling customers to easily integrate 64-bit mission-critical Linux and Windows technology into the datacenter. The new product line offers the PRIMEQUEST 440 with up to sixteen CPUs, and the PRIMEQUEST 480 with up to thirty-two CPUs. The product will ship in June 2005. No pricing information was announced.
PRIMEQUEST products are positioned to capitalize on
Fujitsu’s strong mainframe heritage, and are likely critical to Fujitsu’s
future success in the server market. The PRIMEQUEST offering may help offset
potential declines and lackluster performance in other Fujitsu server segments.
In the past Fujitsu has sold one- to- four-way Itanium servers with marginal
success; for example, in 2003-2004 the company shipped less than 250 Itanium
systems. PRIMEQUEST servers extend the Fujitsu portfolio of
SPARC64/Solaris-based PRIMEPOWER servers, Intel based
PRIMERGY industry standard servers, and
Fujitsu’s partners have and will continue to benefit from
the Fujitsu PRIMEQUEST relationship. Providing mission-critical software is a
key strength of the global Fujitsu alliance. Fujitsu has collaborated with Red
Hat and contributed to the hardening of the open operating system for
business-critical usage through the contribution of 500 Fujitsu Linux
developers. Under the Global Alliance Partnership, Fujitsu is working closely
with Microsoft around the development of mission-critical
Intel may derive the greatest leverage from the Fujitsu
alliance. Intel has positioned Itanium as the component solution for
high-performance computing, a RISC replacement, and the core for enterprise
high availability and performance in mission-critical computing. In June 2003
Intel and Fujitsu announced their plans to develop mission-critical mainframe
class servers for delivery in 2005; to their credit both companies have
delivered on schedule. PRIMEQUEST products released in June will be based on
Intel Madison, but by the end of the year they will be deploying Intel’s new
high-end Montecito dual core processors and virtualization, and future Itanium
processor generations such as Montvale and Tukwila will be at the PRIMEQUEST
core. The expected result will be a continuing future revenue stream for Intel
from its high-end processor line. This has the potential to challenge
Speaking at the Open Source Business Conference this week,
To many, the open source development movement is seen as
being completely about Linux and its prospects. But other offshoots of the open
source community are also making waves, as evidenced by the growth of
application development using a Linux, Apache, MySQL,
and Perl/PHP/Python (LAMP) stack as the base of developing new Service Oriented
Architecture (SOA) offerings. Wladawsky-Berger’s
observations come at a time when companies like
We have maintained in the past that de facto IT technology
standards radiate outward from large enterprises down through the food chain to
mid-tiers and SMBs. We see no reason to reconsider that observation. Yet with
the development of the LAMP ecosystem, we see an intriguing opportunity to
watch how IT vendors can balance the competing interests of selling established
IT products while at the same time taking note of and assimilating emerging
technology trends like open source development in general and LAMP in
particular. Clearly companies like
For end users who are inclined to use one company or the
other, the implications are fewer vendors to purchase from and better
integrated service for the range of storage products. Although
Sun to Elect Final Members of the Governing Board for OpenSolaris Initiative
In late 2004 Sun announced plans to open source the Solaris operating system and other pertinent intellectual property. Over the last few months the company has been working on technical, licensing, and other issues with respect to the initiative. This week the Sun open source initiative announced the creation of the OpenSolaris Advisory Board and selected the first five board members. The selection includes an independent consultant, an engineer from the community at large, Apache Software Foundation co-founder Roy Fielding, and two Sun employees. Sun Operating Platforms Group Vice President Glenn Weinberg said the board was created to steward the evolution of the OpenSolaris community towards self-governance.
Sun is perhaps unique in the industry in trying to drive a company proprietary technology, Solaris, as an industry standard via a formal standards initiative that the company establishes and enables. This is in contrast to its past efforts to drive Java as a standard through ISO, but which were abandoned once the company was not able to control the process to the extent it desired. Nevertheless this represents another try by Sun to drive a company-specific set of technologies to a more formal standard. To some extent Apache achieved its open status by a similar approach, if not a different implementation. We believe that this effort may succeed, if developers will step up to the plate and architect applications that work with the broader body of open source technology. However, given Sun's historic proclivity to stack the deck in its favor, it would be well advised to avoid the urge to populate the OpenSolaris Advisory board with Sun employees or independents with a Sun bias. One of the first Advisory board goals should be to create governance that sets the rules for the OpenSolaris community to oversee its own operation from meeting frequencies and protocols on how to manage the contribution process without dictation by Sun. In order to make this effective, board members should bring expertise in setting up open-source communities but have diverse backgrounds, experience, and collegial networks. Support and involvement in other open source projects will also be key to the OpenSolaris Advisory Board goals.
There is a lot in this for Sun should it succeed. OpenSolaris could help drive growth and adoption of a diverse open source community that could help fuel Sun with opportunities for value-added offerings. OpenSolaris effort could help drive the company’s long-term viability. The developer and user community would benefit in that they gain mature, supported technology that they can effectively build on, and that offers an attractive economic proposition. Of course, Sun is not the only vendor taking this approach, and in many respects is late to the start. Whether the company is successful or not in its quest for long term viability and marketplace relevance will be determined by developers and users in the marketplace who have many options, most notably Linux and other 64 bit hardware platforms. Winning the mindshare of these individuals will be key to Sun's success in driving OpenSolaris. Without this support from the developer community, OpenSolaris may find itself no more relevant to the open source community than Solaris x86 is for the commercial marketplace.