Suntek, errr, Storun
Big news in the IT world this past week. Sun announced their purchase of StorageTek. As usual, I have lots of thoughts...
STK, the good side of the force. I use STK equipment, and for the most part, it's rock-solid. They're support is decent, and their tape libraries are second-to-none. I think they're a well-established company that will continue to be so over the next 10 years. Backups aren't going to go away, so as long as they keep with the technology, they're good to go. And then there is the other side of the force, Sun. Scott McNealy (aka "Darth") and gang are a bunch of babbling morons. They have single-handedly taken a once great enterprise giant and made it into a smoldering, festering, pile of sun-roasted silicon. The fact that they're still selling _any_ server hardware can only be accounted to vendor lockin. Their low end systems can't even come close to touching modern x86-64 systems, and their high-end stuff is, well, ummm, reliable? Not that HP is the poster-boy technology company when it comes to big iron, but despite they're sinking Itanic, their high-end stuff is bitchin-fast in comparison to Sun. Slowlaris is a joke in itself. Sure, it serves a purpose, but Solaris on x86? Get real. The OS ain't all that without the proprietary hardware underneath it. And as for Solaris 10 saving the day, well, I don't consider whiz-bang filesystems (yet to be released of course) and hugely complex profiling tools to be the definition of a great OS. Sure, they help cover up the stench of the other OS issues, but only so much can be done. And don't even get me started on the "Solaris 10 is free" issue. What a mess. Oh by the way, Sun supports Linux, err, wait, no they don't. Oh, just in, they support Linux again, but you'll have to pull teeth to get them to sell you hardware that doesn't run Solaris 10. What a freaking joke.
So, my take on this is that Sun is, and has been for the past few years, doomed. Once they lose their install base to Linux and Windows servers, they're done. Support profits only work when there's something to support. Unfortunately for STK, despite they're great products and loyal customer base, I think the amount of "suck" that Sun brings to the equation is enough to pull down STK into the black pool of nothingness that they've become so comfortable with. (FYI, for the definition of ruining a good product by bringing in too much "suck", see a company by the name of "HP".) My advice to Sun employees/users: step into the current decade and stop sucking. My advice to STK employees/users: never underestimate the power of the dark side. Watch closely, and get ready to run far and fast.
STK, the good side of the force. I use STK equipment, and for the most part, it's rock-solid. They're support is decent, and their tape libraries are second-to-none. I think they're a well-established company that will continue to be so over the next 10 years. Backups aren't going to go away, so as long as they keep with the technology, they're good to go. And then there is the other side of the force, Sun. Scott McNealy (aka "Darth") and gang are a bunch of babbling morons. They have single-handedly taken a once great enterprise giant and made it into a smoldering, festering, pile of sun-roasted silicon. The fact that they're still selling _any_ server hardware can only be accounted to vendor lockin. Their low end systems can't even come close to touching modern x86-64 systems, and their high-end stuff is, well, ummm, reliable? Not that HP is the poster-boy technology company when it comes to big iron, but despite they're sinking Itanic, their high-end stuff is bitchin-fast in comparison to Sun. Slowlaris is a joke in itself. Sure, it serves a purpose, but Solaris on x86? Get real. The OS ain't all that without the proprietary hardware underneath it. And as for Solaris 10 saving the day, well, I don't consider whiz-bang filesystems (yet to be released of course) and hugely complex profiling tools to be the definition of a great OS. Sure, they help cover up the stench of the other OS issues, but only so much can be done. And don't even get me started on the "Solaris 10 is free" issue. What a mess. Oh by the way, Sun supports Linux, err, wait, no they don't. Oh, just in, they support Linux again, but you'll have to pull teeth to get them to sell you hardware that doesn't run Solaris 10. What a freaking joke.
So, my take on this is that Sun is, and has been for the past few years, doomed. Once they lose their install base to Linux and Windows servers, they're done. Support profits only work when there's something to support. Unfortunately for STK, despite they're great products and loyal customer base, I think the amount of "suck" that Sun brings to the equation is enough to pull down STK into the black pool of nothingness that they've become so comfortable with. (FYI, for the definition of ruining a good product by bringing in too much "suck", see a company by the name of "HP".) My advice to Sun employees/users: step into the current decade and stop sucking. My advice to STK employees/users: never underestimate the power of the dark side. Watch closely, and get ready to run far and fast.
posted by Christopher C. Weis at
3:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home