Sun Pitches its Consolidation Credo

Computergram International, April 13, 1999

By William Fellows Sun Microsystems Inc says that it has had a server consolidation business up and running since November 1997, making its consolidation services the most well-established in the industry, it claims. It also believes it has the biggest chunk of the industry's consolidation business, but then that depends on how the numbers are counted.

Sun says that between 70% and 75% of its Starfire servers now ship configured with multiple domains - systems within a system - claiming this demonstrates all are engaged in consolidation of some sort. Unlike IBM Corp or Hewlett-Packard Co, Sun doesn't offer a discrete consolidation practice but instead says it defines products and servers to address several key consolidation opportunities: PC desktop simplification; NT workgroup consolidation; departmental and business servers; enterprise applications including ERP; and storage. "NT is there to be consolidated before you even buy it," says Sun, "it comes in packs!" Starfire servers can offer a single footprint for applications currently spread across multiple systems. Its SyMon console can consolidate management tasks. Moreover Sun says its technology is better positioned than the competition to track the industry's movement from providing applications to delivering services through the portal model. In addition to so-called 'best practices' such as encouraging users to upgrade to a single operating system release, Sun uses a version of Gartner Group's TCO, total cost of ownership study tool in its server consolidation services. Sun says it took the study, added some metrics and added it to its package of services back in January. However it finds the Gartner study inadequate for moving beyond TCO system studies to the next level, examining application, skillset and people costs. Here it is using Giga Group's study of total economic impact to take TCO studies one step further and apply measures to reduce complexity.