Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Solaris to Shine on the Mainframe (Say what!?)

Quite apart from the surprise over what passes for physics these days, PhysOrg.com recently reported on a surprise deal that will enable Sun's Solaris operating system to run on IBM servers.

Initially, the agreement will involve only IBM's (AIX) mid-range servers, which can also run the Windows and Linux operating systems, but eventually, so the report says, IBM hopes to bring Solaris to the mainframe. I assume this means it will run in a z/OS LPAR, like they do with Linux. If I take the view (and I do) that the mainframe is not a "dinosaur" but just another (excellent data processing) server on the network, one wonders where this leaves future Sun hardware platforms.

Add to this the growing emphasis by Sun to deploy Intel and AMD microprocessors for cost reasons and, as Jonathan Schwartz says, it "represents a tectonic shift in the market landscape." No kidding! I just wonder whether Schwartz will be riding the plate that stays on top or the plate that goes under.

No comments: