Sun set to surf the next wave of IT

Corporate restructure switches focus to utility computing and open source

Iain Thomson, vnunet.com 02 Feb 2005

Sun Microsystems is undertaking a major corporate restructure to shift focus towards utility computing and open source.

Speaking exclusively to vnunet.com Anil Gadre, Sun's chief marketing officer, outlined the changes that he believes will form the "next wave" of computing.

For Sun these changes will include a reorganisation of its corporate structure, and the building of data centres around the world to service corporate clients' computing needs.

"This is where the leading edge of the business is going; a change in IT behaviour," said Gadre.

"Things take a long time to change so, while we're at the leading edge, we're looking to help companies change. We increasingly see the replacement of legacy applications with web-based applications and plan to meet that demand."

Some 10,000 staff are being organised into six client solutions organisations dealing with data centres, enterprise web services, desktop and mobility, storage and data management, manageability services, and identity management.

These organisations will use staff experienced in planning and setting up IT projects, and will offer a range of services in their specialist areas by the end of the year including thin client and voice over IP.

There will also be changes in Sun's managed service operations that could see cost cutting for customers that follow best practice.

"Instead of just having a service and support contract we look at the entire organisation, and if it agrees to certain update practices it gets a rebate," said Gadre. "If you live a healthy IT lifestyle our costs go down and we're happy to share the return."

The company is also building data centres around the world to service expected demand for its new utility storage and grid computing offerings.

Three centres have already been built in the US along with one in London, described by Gadre as "seeds from which to grow".

They reflect the relatively high demand for grid computing in the two countries. Sun is expecting the rest of northern Europe to follow suit over the coming years.

"We will build wherever there is demand," Gadre stated. "We're not expecting the world to move to grid computing overnight, but anecdotal evidence shows a company's internal costs per CPU per hour as around $8-$12 per unit so people can see the financial incentive."

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