A decade ago, the server market looked very different than it does today. It was a market based on proprietary, closed technology, with limited opportunity for innovation. Then, the landscape changed, and server technology opened up around us.
Today, a similar sweeping change is happening in the storage marketplace, but this time, Sun is leading the way. Open Storage represents an important transition from proprietary, closed storage technology to open-source software, industry-standard hardware and innovative solutions.
Since Sun first introduced the concept of open storage one year ago, the OpenSolaris storage community has grown significantly with Sun- and non-Sun contributions, and OpenSolaris has become the industry’s best storage operating system. Many customers and original equipment manufacturers have already created storage infrastructure from general-purpose Sun servers and OpenSolaris with ZFS at a fraction of the cost of proprietary alternatives — without sacrificing any data integrity.
Because of the exciting hardware and software technology that’s emerged from years of engineering development at Sun, as well as the contributions of the OpenSolaris community, we are now able to offer the world’s first Open Storage platform. This is made possible through the combination of innovative storage features like ZFS in OpenSolaris, our industry-leading storage servers, and a forthcoming set of disk storage products based on breakthrough hardware technology. These advances in Sun’s core technologies create entire new revenue opportunities for Sun, enabling conversations with current and potential customers that were never before possible.
The benefits of Sun’s Open Storage approach to customers, developers, and partners are dramatic.
Because customers can now build storage infrastructure by combining OpenSolaris with general-purpose servers and simple disk enclosures, they are set free from the last bastion of proprietary technology in the data center. Sun’s Open Storage enables customers to freely mix and match data center components to produce storage systems which can be re-purposed by simply adding new software. With this approach, customers can accelerate the pace of their businesses and save up to 90% on their storage costs over closed, proprietary storage.
Developers can now deliver network storage services more quickly, on multiple platforms, with the support of a passionate open source storage community. And, consistent with Sun’s approach to all our products, we’re making our Open Storage technologies widely available, for the advancement of everyone in the industry.
Sun’s extensive expertise across the entire technology stack - microprocessor, server, storage, software, and networking - positions us to lead in this exciting new segment of the storage market. We have now come full circle since releasing NFS two decades ago - expanding the platform to not just network-attached storage, but to various other kinds of storage and countless new kinds of applications.
Once you feel you know what Open Storage is all about, test yourself by taking the Open Storage Challenge. The first 700 people to take the quiz will receive a “Set Your Storage Free” tie-dye t-shirt.
For More Information:
OpenSolaris Storage Community: http://opensolaris.org/os/storage
Open Storage Wiki: http://wikihome.sfbay.sun.com/Systems/Wiki.jsp?page=OpenStorage
Open Storage Expert Community Wiki: http://wikihome.sfbay.sun.com/openstorage/Wiki.jsp?page=Main
Open Storage Selling Resources: http://mysales.central.sun.com/public/storage/openstorage.html
Open Storage Sun.com website: www.sun.com/openstorage
Join the Open Storage Facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=12774638036
Review OpenSolaris OS and/or NetBeans IDE 6.1 for…
• a chance to win a grand prize of $250 in Visa Debit Card, and
• 5 chances to win a prize of $100 in Visa Debit Card
Simply:
1. Download OpenSolaris OS and/or NetBeans IDE 6.1.
2. Test the product and post a review!
3. Submit the URL of your review.
4. Do it before June 6, 2008.
Need ideas for what to post to claim the top prize? Here are some suggestions:
a) Describe your OpenSolaris OS installation experience and what it took for you to make it up and running on your hardware platform
b) Run benchmarks and show how OpenSolaris OS performed against a competing OS
c) Create a “how-to” on solving a specific problem using OpenSolaris OS or NetBeans IDE 6.1 (use detailed instructions, code snippets, commands and outputs etc. as appropriate)
d) Share your deep insight about OpenSolaris OS or NetBeans IDE 6.1, including your favorite features
e) Give suggestions on how to enhance the OpenSolaris OS or NetBeans IDE 6.1
f) Build a cool plug-in to share with the NetBeans Community.
We organized Sun SPOT presentations at KTH this week. First one was in main campus and the second one was in Kista campus, where all the IT students and companies are located. We got good responses from participants and we are happy to share our knowledge with the community.
Here you can watch a sample project from KTH Campus Ambassadors and Kenneth.
After the presentation some of the students asked about the presentation slides. Here you can re-check the slides. If you need more and deeper information please do not hesitate to contact with us.
The Sun Startup Essentials (SSE) program is mandated under Market Development team’s charter to drive Sun adoption in emerging markets. This program is already running in US, China, India, Israel, Germany, France and UK, and is now being launched in Sweden. ( Seehttp://se.sun.com/startup )
The underlying philosophy for SSE is to target startup companies, preferably in the Web 2.0 space and get them using Sun IP when they are still small. Sun will invest in these companies by offering Sun’s products at deeply discounted prices. This is being done to lower the acquisition cost for these companies. The program is to ensure that these startup companies are on Sun platforms and when they grow big (as some of them will), they will do so on the back of Sun’s products.
Any startup company that meets the qualifying criteria will be eligible for the program. However we will be focusing our marketing activities on the Web 2.0 space.
Who qualifies?
The qualifying criterias are simple - just about any startup company that meets the following criteria can be part of the SSE program:
1. Be in business for 4 years or less
2. Less than 150 employees
3. Verifiable company presence (website , company profile, etc.)
4. Be based in Sweden
5. Provide a valid street address
What does a Startup get?
Free Software: Popular open source software such as My SQL , Perl, Apache all optimised for Solaris OS
Discounted Partner Hosting: Offering top notch web hosting from Sun partners at discounted prices
Discounted Systems: Deep discounts on industry leading Sun Systems up to a limit of USD 150K per year
Startups Ask Sun: Our professional engineers will answer technology based questions over email and will provide answers that startups may need.
In today’s world of higher education, students are looking for more than just a diploma. Academic institutions are challenged to keep curricula current with the latest technologies. At the same time, students are looking for industry recognized training that can fast-track their careers and increase their finances. According to a Certification Magazine Salary Survey, Sun Certification increases earning power:
Sun Certified Programmers earn on average 8.3% more than the average programmer
Sun Certified Developers earn on average 14.3% more than the average developer
Sun Certified System Administrators earn on average 31% more than system administrators certified on other operating systems
Clearly, if you’re looking to have an edge, technology training through the Sun Academic Initiative can offer materials for mastery of skills that will propel students into fulfilling careers right from the start.
For the online course catalog, you can check here.
What are the OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards?
The OpenSolaris Community Innovation Awards are intended to recognize and reward new, enabling, innovative, and high-performance uses of OpenSolaris technology, or substantial contributions to the OpenSolaris community. This program is part of a broader Community Innovation Awards Program whose goals are to “foster innovation and recognize the most interesting initiatives within open source communities worldwide.” Sun is the primary sponsor of this program and intends to contribute over $1 million across six open source communities.
We hope these awards will encourage more people to participate in the OpenSolaris community. Join a community, a project, a forum or other discussion. Use OpenSolaris. Study OpenSolaris.
The contest portion, $100,000, of the award money is open to a broad range of entries. You can enter code that will eventually be putback into OpenSolaris (such as a device driver), or you can write a program that runs on top of the OS (such as a tool or game), or your entry can be something that is not code at all. You could enter materials for an operating systems course based on OpenSolaris (lecture notes, student guide, labs). Project Ideas lists some ideas for entries. These are just suggestions to get you started thinking about what you want to do. Contest Entries lists the entries that users have already registered for this contest.
What are the Prizes?
29 prizes are available:
1 Grand Prize: $30,000
3 First Prizes: $15,000 each
25 Second Prizes: $1,000 each
All prizes are in U.S. dollars. Entries will be reviewed by an expert panel of judges.
Sun is giving away $500 for 10 winners and T-Shirts for 100 winners with the best blogs. This is a GREAT opportunity for developers –including students– to learn about NetBeans IDE, have some fun, and possibly get rich and famous! Well maybe not rich, but there are cash prizes and noteworthy blogs will be linked from NetBeans.org
As the contest web page says, the process is simple:
1. Download the NetBeans IDE 6.1 Beta (or later release) and try it out.
2. Blog about it!
3. Submit the URL to your blog.
4. Do it before April 18, 2008!
Here’s what we’d like you to do:
Post a blog describing your experience using the new NetBeans IDE 6.1, a tutorial, insight, tech tip, cool code sample, request for enhancements, etc. Your blog must be linked to a comment or trackback made to the NetBeans Blogging Contest site. Entries must be new material and not copied from something already written. Complete the submission form, or email a link of your blog entry to nb-blogcontest@sun.com
Blogging Tips:
Need ideas for what to post to claim the top prize? Here are suggestions:
Show a cool code sample using the new NetBeans IDE 6.1
Create a “Top 10” NetBeans Tutorials/Links/Snippets/Tricks
Share your deep insight about NetBeans IDE 6.1 development, including your favorite features
Give suggestions on how to enhance the NetBeans IDE 6.1
Build a cool plugin to share with the NetBeans Community
Deadlines: Contest starts: March 14, 2008 Contest deadline: April 18, 2008 Judging period: April 19 - May 12, 2008 Winners announced: May 12, 2008
Here’s some added incentive:
The 10 schools with the highest number of blogs will each receive 50 vouchers for credit towards Java certification (to be distributed by the ambassadors either to students who blogged and/or via Tech Talks). And the school with the most blogs total gets $250 USD cash for pizza at an upcoming Tech Talk.
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KTH, Open Source, Open and Free Software, Solaris, Sun Microsystems, The Royal Institute of Technology | Tagged: open storage, open storage platform, world's first open storage platform | 
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