| Sajha.com Archives | |
| Username | Post |
| SMSainjuIBM releasing fir | Posted
on 25-Jan-02 11:37 PM
IBM releasing first Linux mainframe computer: a bargain at $400,000 SMSainju |
| le chef du nuit | Posted
on 11-Feb-02 10:55 PM
just love those new IBM ads esp the one that ends with "he loves the game" |
| Sun | Posted
on 12-Feb-02 12:21 PM
"We've Made Huge Progress the Last 12 Months" (08 February 2002) On a day when Sun announced broader support for the Linux Operating Environment, a penguin sounding an awful lot like Scott McNealy took the stage at Sun's eighth annual Worldwide Analyst Conference to demonstrate that Linux is an important part of Sun's strategy. "It's the only time you're going to see me in a tuxedo my entire life," said McNealy, his voice muffled inside the head of the penguin costume, the symbol of the Linux OE. "I didn't know any other way to convince you that Linux is a serious part of our strategy. Now, if I say we're going to spend $1 billion on Linux (IBM claimed recently that it had invested that amount in Linux), can I take this suit off?" McNealy reiterated the position Ed Zander set out for analysts earlier in the day that Sun has been a supporter of Linux and has been selling Linux-based Cobalt appliances for some time. "We're doing it a little differently than IBM," said McNealy, "IBM sees Linux as another way to scare and confuse. We want to make it simple, package it as part of our H1 (horizontal) computing strategy." In addition to addressing Sun's ongoing support for open systems, McNealy discussed Sun's progress during the last year,investment in R&D and competition. Scott McNealy introduced the new ergonomically correct "iFire", Sun's answer to Apple's iMac. He demonstrated how easily the computer can be positioned by moving the "iFire" freely with one finger. The stunt drew howls of laughter from analysts. He told analysts that he was "thrilled" with where Sun is positioned today compared with the last several years. "We've made huge progress during the last 12 months," he said. "We made more progress the last 12 months than we did the previous two years." McNealy pointed to a number of accomplishments and initiatives including: The completion of Sun's changeover to the UltraSPARC-III microprocessor ("It was a tremendous job getting that completed in one year"). Storage: ("Sun's not good at playing defense. You'll see us be a lot more aggressive, a lot more on our toes with storage products".) Software: Solaris -- ("I didn't need to send anyone a memo saying, 'Hey guys, security is important,' that's built into trusted Solaris.") Java -- ("When we started 20 years ago, I never would've guessed that Sun would be credited with creating and driving one of the two platforms that developers would write to.") The continued success of J2EE and the recent release of J2SE 1.4 ("A new product that's going to continue to drive us.") Sun's dominant position in the smart card market, which has become increasingly important as business and government search for identity solutions, ("Smart cards are what the government wants; our card strategy is going to be big.") iPlanet -- ("It's nice to have iPlanet completely under our wing. We know how to make this kind of software scale and make it great.") And the Liberty Alliance -- ("It's been a game breaker. Passport was scary. I think planet earth is better off for what we've done.") Sun Sigma: ("We've made great progress in availability and quality (A&Q) throughout the company. We've pushed hard on A&Q initiatives. Sun Sigma is helping us get a lot more efficient. It's allowing different parts of Sun to communicate and work together. We have 8,000 employees trained, including 3,000 in one quarter last year. It's a wild fire that can't be put out.") Customer engagement: ("We've been migrating from Exodus and Enron to industries such as healthcare ("People are still dying, so it's a good market") and education ("Kids are staying in school rather than dropping out to do dot-bomb startups.") "They have huge net working problems. That's what we do, make the net work." In addition to targeting different industries, McNealy said Sun is adjusting successfully to a different sales environment. "We're not getting the $100-million service provider orders like we used to," he said. "Now, it's hand-to-hand combat in the trenches." He emphasized the advantages of Sun's strategy of using best-of-breed partners such as EDS ("We've already gotten $400 million of business out of our Continuum of Services Program") and Accenture. "They love us" McNealy said of Sun's systems integrator partners. "The best-of-breed approach is far and away better than IBM's in-bred approach." McNealy emphasized the importance that Sun places on R&D and said that Sun's $2 billion investment in R&D was matched by only 21 other companies in the world. |
| Continue | Posted
on 12-Feb-02 12:22 PM
"We're very focused," McNealy said of Sun's approach to R&D spending. "There are no printers, no set-top boxes, no cameras. We're focused on the network computing problem. That's why we're working so hard on storage. It's critical to the quality of services, security and integrity of transactions that happen on the network." The focus on making the net work ("We Make the Net Work" is the tagline of Sun's new branding initiative) includes initiatives in vertical and horizontal computing; a concept known as N1 (an architecture that builds the computer out of the network); Solaris ("Key engineering efforts will continue") and online directory work ("The first one to die with the most names in their online directory wins.") Telling analysts that he understood their skepticism about Sun's approach, McNealy said, "They way we go about things may be controversial, but if it weren't there would be no chance of making money with it . . . . We're going to be spending $20-to-$30 billion this decade on this problem. I think that makes Sun a great bet for investors." Saying that customers today have three choices: "IBM's un-integratable approach, Microsoft's integrated approach and Sun's integratable approach," McNealy characterized Sun's fierce competition with Microsoft and IBM in military terms. "It's a big air battle," he said of Sun's competition with Microsoft. "We're in a dogfight, a dogfight for developers . . . enterprise developers, web developers, third-party developers." He emphasized the advantages of Sun's open approach to tools and interfaces and the strength of the collaborative developer community and said that "We have the best collaborative developer community that brings together Java, UNIX, Sun ONE developers and our penguin friends . . . . It's kind of mankind versus Microsoft." McNealy said Sun was engaged "bayonet to bayonet" with IBM Global Services. "IBM has no architecture," McNealy said."If they had an architecture, they wouldn't need Global Services." McNealy indicated that while Sun took advantage of the Internet bubble ("We're not going to apologize for it; we grew our brand and a $6 billion war chest") IBM did not. "We're capable of riding the the next spike up, and we'll ride the next spike down more responsibly than our competitors," he said. "We're here for the long term and investing like a corporation that's here for the long term." |