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 The adoption of open source software continues to grow. Gartner has predicted that by 2012 more than 90 percent of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms.
What does open source mean to your organisation? Have you thought about the possibilities or simply overlooked it in favour of proprietary systems? If so, it is time to look again.
When evaluating open source versus proprietary systems, keep your organization's needs in mind. As an example, Sun offers two distinct flavours of operating systems: the Solaris 10 OS and OpenSolaris. Both are free. Both share the same original DNA and deliver multi-platform, multi-vendor interoperability.Based on one Solaris platform, both provide users with:
- Real-time debugging and optimisation through DTrace
- Predictive Self-Healing — automatic diagnosis and recovery
- Ensured data integrity with ZFS
OpenSolaris: Benefits for Web 2.0 Companies
OpenSolaris is a source base and a community, which today has more than 75,000 members. It provides the advantages of three years of community development with the latest technology innovation without the testing that proprietary systems undergo. The technology developed from the OpenSolaris Project is the basis for future versions of the Solaris operating system.
With a short release cycle of six months, OpenSolaris is ideal for organisations, such as Web 2.0 companies, that require the most up-to-date mobile and web application technology.The OpenSolaris community gives these Web 2.0 companies the opportunity to collaborate with Sun and other community members on the future of ultra-secure operating systems.
What's Best for Developers?
OpenSolaris allows you to take your idea from experimentation to global deployment on a single platform in a familiar environment.
The Solaris 10 OS has a state-of-the-art code base that is well-structured and documented — and is backed by a global community that collaborates to fuel innovation.
Sun Appoints Dedicated Software Chief Technologist
With the changing face of the software market — and with open source, high-performance computing and Web 2.0 key drivers in this space — Sun has appointed Gary O'Brien to Chief Software Technologist for Australia and New Zealand. His focus is on developing Sun's software and open source strategies across the region, and he will be responsible for communicating these strategies with partners and the market.
With recent acquisitions of Innotek (VirtualBox desktop virtualisation) and MySQL, the world's fastest growing open source database, Sun's open source stack has been strengthened. More than 100 million copies of MySQL's open source database software have been downloaded to date.
Sun's 'open' strategy is about making software easily available for customers and for developers. This commitment involves open sourcing all Sun software under open source licenses.
This will make Sun's platforms more vibrant and more innovative — and have better quality than ever, solving customers' greatest challenges quickly and cost effectively.
If you want more information on topics covered in this issue of Sun Inner Circle, please contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Bennet
VP and Managing Director
Sun Microsystems Australasia Pty. Ltd.
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