A Good Deal for Sun?

Sun has had one of the best

Sun has had one of the best opportunities to enter the storage market over the last several years, provided by the paradigm technology shift now underway. The hardware is commoditizing and the code base is becoming multi-generational. All the functionality is shifting to the code base and the processors are industry standard. What you need to compete in enterprise storage today is a server cluster to run the code, an OS kernel to sit it on, and the rest you can buy from the drive and SAN element suppliers, numerous and eager for business from a major player. SUN also had the other key pieces, a captive server base and established distribution channels. A number of years ago, Scott nixed a storage deal by reportedly stating, "SUN is a workstation company, and we do not want to lose our focus by diluting resources on a storage play". A year or so after that pronouncement, we have the 180 degree reversal that led to the Encore acquisition, which was a total bust, which anyone in the storage business could have told SUN. They could have taken the several hundred million invested in the Encore fiasco, carted it in small bills up onto the roof at HQ and scattered it on a windy day with more market effect. Now comes STK, with its incredibly bad strategic decision to abandon its long-standing product philosophy of licensing the tape format from IBM literally eating its core mainframe user base away by leaps and bounds. This, combined with the reliance on log structured arrays in the disk arena, a technology long ago abondoned by the rest of the players, sunk STK as a serious storage player several years ago. IBM and EMC ate the STK disk and tape base alive, and SUN is picking up the carcass while it still thrashes on the ground. The results here are predictable and inevitable.
One Who Knows

The deal is a bad one: 1.

The deal is a bad one:

1. There are definite cultural differences between the two companies.

2. STK focuses on mainframe users, not open systems -- Sun has no expertise in mainframes. STK users are going to be wondering how Sun will provide mainframe support.

3. Strengthening Sun’s ILM portfolio? Neither company has a strong ILM strategy to begin with.

4. EMC, HP and other vendors will use this opportunity to sell more tape product over the next 12-18 months while there is confusion in the marketplace.

'nuff said

Why is Sun + Storagetek in

Why is Sun + Storagetek in 2005 better than Digital Equipment circa 1997? Both sell (or sold) a range of computers and storage gear. In 1997 Digital sold itself to a competitor because it couldn't afford to be a full-service provider. In particular, storage, operating systems (more than one!), and service. What is different between that old story and Sun and Storagetek today?