Is Sun open source storage play too late?

Sun has laid the hammer down in enterprise storage, with an “open source” offering that really does pass the savings on to the customer, as they must be passed.

Enterprise storage costs more than what you have in your home. My son is a gamer who has 850 Gigabytes of storage. The low end of the new Sun line is 2 terabytes for about $11,000. I’m certain the Sun price is worth it.

As Larry Dignan notes, Sun hopes open source developers will rally round the flag, boosting storage sales from $25 million to a hefty share of its $3 billion total revenue base.

But as ZDNet also noted yesterday, it may be too late. Sun had to take enormous writedowns in the last quarter, posting an eye-popping $1.67 billion loss.

What really makes a downturn like the present one brutal is its ruthlessness. If companies fear doing business with banks that are on the brink (despite insured deposits) how you think they like dealing with vendors suffering the same perception?

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Microsoft 'Not Against' Open Source

The division between proprietary software vendors and open-source providers is not as clear as some industry players perceive it to be. As more enterprises consider adopting open source technologies, even traditional software vendors such as Microsoft have taken steps in responding to such customer needs.

"Open source is not a product but an approach to software development," said Matthew Hardman, platform strategy manager at Microsoft Singapore. "Microsoft does not compete with open source, just as Nike does not compete with running."

Hardman said the software giant seeks to provide the 'best possible platform' for open source applications to run. "We believe that enterprises and vendors should have a choice of software development methodology, and open source is one such choice."

The platform strategy manager noted however, that Microsoft will compete with open source-based providers, just as it also competes with other proprietary vendors.

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Open source technology casts new perspective on China's development

A senior official of a world leading IT company said recently that open source technology stands as a significant opportunity for China's development.

Crawford Beveridge, vice president of Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), said that open source software, the source of which can be used, modified and published by public, and other open IT standards are cheaper, more stable and flexible and are new ways to ensure local and sustained growth.

Its characteristic of openness can prompt the creation of indigenous innovative companies, regardless of macroeconomic or other international challenge, Beveridge said.

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