Data centres have changed dramatically over the years, moving from customisation to standardisation.
So says Sun Microsystems Germany and South East EMEA marketing director Martin H"aring, who spoke to ITWeb during a visit to SA recently.
"In the 1990s all companies built their own - it was very customised. But now we are seeing the standardisation of the data centre. People want to use off-the-shelf products that they will tune slightly to suit them."
H"aring predicts that, by 2010, people will want to use computing like power from a plug. "It's a kind of utility computing and that is where we are heading."
Sun is promoting the utility computing concept - which would see companies leveraging Sun's infrastructure for $1 per computer per hour - as part of its new business plan going forward. This involves developing new partnerships that are technology-driven, new products and a new business model, says H"aring.
"We want to deliver a model that offers customers grid computing power on an hourly basis, and to move from spot buying towards a recurring revenue model. We think this makes sense for a number of companies because the average utilisation of data centres at present is probably around 10%."
As part of its new strategy, Sun has also changed the way it sells software, says H"aring.
"When you mix different products on a data centre, it creates complexity, so we are putting together one package that is charged per employee per year."
The package used to cost $100, but has been raised to $140 as the company has added new software to the stack.
All Sun's new products are binary compatible, he adds. "This means companies don't have to swap their whole system - you can imagine what that would mean to data centre managers."
Share
