Sun rises on utility computing

Sun Microsystems is probably not the first company that comes to mind when one thinks of large storage system vendors. During the past few years of never-ending server- and Java-related news, however, Sun has quietly built a solid line of storage products.

Now that Sun’s occasional but recurring scuffle with Microsoft seems to have come to an end, reporters will have more space for perhaps less entertaining but certainly more businesslike topics such as developments in storage.

Sun workers will also enjoy the new, peaceful coexistence. Speaking of renewed harmony with Microsoft, one Sun employee summed it up: “At least we won’t have to walk on eggshells anymore.”

The recent deluge of storage-related announcements from Sun certainly suggests little in the way of eggshells. In fact, the press release I saw had all the connotations of a manifesto. And my related conversation with Chris Wood, director of technical sales and marketing for the network storage group at Sun, touched on just about every aspect of storage.

Simply put, forthcoming Sun products will span several critical areas, including reference data, ILM (information lifecycle management), and utility computing. During the next weeks and months, I expect to see many heads turning to follow that news — and perhaps to give Sun storage a second look.

My favorite new offering from Sun, utility computing, blends strong business appeal with low technical requirements. In essence, Sun is offering high-end StorEdge 9000 customers freedom from managing their own storage — for a fee, of course. 

This service, which Sun also expects to deliver to business partners, requires at least a three-year commitment and a minimum capacity of 30TB. Depending on configuration details, such as the use of low-density or high-density drives, Sun anticipates an all-inclusive monthly cost of between $2 and $2.50 per gigabyte.

What differentiates the new service from other contract forms such as leases is that customers pay only for the amount of storage used — and usually without penalties for decreased or increased capacity.

Additional services such as mirroring for business continuity and performance monitoring can significantly increase the cost of the service. Nevertheless, when dealing with multimillion-dollar contracts, customers often pay more attention to financial flexibility than to sticker price.

According to Wood, some customers may not have the capacity for large asset depreciation in their budget and will find the pay-as-you-go formula irresistible.

Wood also said that Sun may some day extend a similar utility computing model to other product lines such as the 6900, thereby opening the concept to a larger customer base. In the meantime, Sun has other products lined up for those customers, but I’ll have to touch on those in another column.