Sunacle ... Orasun ... the saga continues ...
By joe
- 2 minutes read - 415 wordsIt does seem that Larry Ellison and his team are focused where they think Sun’s real value lies. From an article today in The Register, some of these plans are showing up in the press. For those not sure if things are done with, the JAVA symbol appear to be going going … gone. You can still find a few reminents here. And one of its last 10Q filings, here. As I noted previously, Oracle isn’t dumb. The execs aren’t dumb. They will focus where they can add value and extract profitable revenue. This has some implications for HPC, but more in a moment:
Yeah, that about covers it. How much money does Sun make from HPC? Probably not very much.
Looking at that aforementioned 10Q, you can see revenue cratering over the preceding year … across the board. Remember, Oracle is going to focus upon its core, and where it can make money. So when you read this “Oracle will also shut down businesses that Sun has been pursuing that do not make money, according to the reports. That could include backtracking on low-end x64-based servers, but not Sparc-based machinery, which will get a boost.” HPC is x64. This should say something about the future of HPC at Sun. Moreover, Sun’s storage business has been taking a pummeling. From faster, better, cheaper competitors eating its lunch, through a reduced demand cycle from the economic slowdown …. Its storage revenue has also cratered. Here’s a WAG. Orasun/Sunacle focuses upon its DB storage. Drops everything that doesn’t matter to, or is basically extraneous to the core, and focuses upon that. There, they invest in SSD and related things. Items to make Oracle shine. Whats gone? Thumpers (well they are already EOLed), Thor, quite a few other things. Probably most of STK. We use SGE for some customers clusters. I don’t think this will be shut down. More likely spun off or sold outright. To Novell, or to others. SGE could make its way into someone else’s stack. It started out waaaay back when as Codiene (anyone remember that besides me?) Other HPC technologies like Lustre? Probably not long for this world at Sunacle/Orasun. The final chapters are not written, the story evolves over time. But this process … this purchase … did not end any other way than badly for segments of Sun’s customers and all of Sun’s shareholders. It was still better than the alternative. End badly … or end. A choice between various evils.