Sun’s Cloud Chilling at Vegas SuperNAP

What lies ahead for the Sun Open Cloud Platform unveiled in March? That will likely be a decision for Oracle Systems (ORCL), which has agreed to acquire Sun Microsystems (JAVA) for $7.4 billion, with the deal is expected to close this summer. Until then, the Sun Cloud is chilling in the SuperNAP in Las Vegas, where its servers are housed in one of Switch Communciations’ custom high-density computing pods known as a T-SCIF (short for Thermal Separate Compartment in Facility). We had a look at the Sun installation during a recent tour of the SuperNAP. The racks are packed top to bottom with servers, creating a power load of up to 24 kW per rack. This video from Sun provides an inside look at the company’s operation at the SuperNAP and the cooling systems that manage that density for the Sun cloud platform. This video runs about 5 minutes.

For additional information, check out our SuperNAP Channel and Sun Microsystems Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

MegaRoundup: The Oracle-Sun Deal

The twists and turns continue in the Battle for the Data Center. Yesterday’s surprise announcement that Oracle Corp. (ORCL) will acquire Sun Microsystems (JAVA)  has generated an enormous amount of commentary, analysis and speculation. Here’s a mega-roundup:

• Steve O’Donnell at The Hot Aisle says the deal could be disruptive for the storage sector. “If Oracle becomes a horizontal storage systems supplier, this announcement does not bode well for NTAP, PAR, and EMC as 40% or so of corporate data is stored in databases and these companies’ sales reps look for database implementations/upgrades as buying catalysts,” O’Donnell writes. “If Oracle sees all of these transactions first, they will capture a portion of the storage spend easily.”
• Forrester analyst James Staten writes that Sun’s server and storage businesses “don’t fit (Oracle’s) model and certainly don’t justify the further investment in the SPARC microprocessor that will be needed to keep this business healthy … expect Oracle to shop these units tout suite.” Staten sees Dell and HP as likely bidders.
• The Burton Group says the deal is good news for customers. “The bad news is the uncertainty this creates around the long term future for Sun’s hardware products, particularly its UltraSPARC high-end servers,” writes Nik simpson. “The question is, ‘What does Oracle plan to do with the hardware business?’, because lets face it, the reason for the acquisition is Java, not hardware.”
• The 451 Group examined Oracle’s track record on open source technologies. “While Oracle has displayed an ability to participate in and benefit from open source software, I think its expectations and aspirations for open source software are limited,” writes Jay Lyman. “You can’t blame a company making billions for not getting to excited about millions, especially when sometimes the millions are simply numbers of users.”
• Om Malik also focuses on the fate of MySQL, expressing concern but concluding that “Oracle will keep MySQL going mostly because it can act as a funnel for further business opportunities.”

Oracle Agrees to Buy Sun for $7.4 Billion

Oracle Corp. has agreed to buy Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion, the companies said this morning, putting a new twist on the emerging battle for the enterprise data center. The deal comes just weeks after the collapse of a bid by IBM to purchase Sun at a similar price point. IBM’s last offer had been rumored to be valued at about $9.40 a share, while Oracle will pay $9.50. Shares of Sun (JAVA) closed Friday at $6.69.

The deal also allows Oracle to acquire MySQL, the dominant open source database, which was acquired by Sun last year. Oddly, in the press announcment Oracle doesn’t mention MySQL, but cites “substantial long-term strategic customer advantages” in acquiring two other Sun technologies, Java and Solaris. Oracle’s  Fusion Middleware is built on top of Java.

By buying Sun, Oracle also moves into the hardware business in a more significant way. Oracle partnered with HP last year on a database server, which marked its first foray into hardware. The deal also gives Oracle an entree into the emerging market for cloud computing, where Sun recently announced a new platform.

Is Sun-IBM Deal Back On Track?

Last week there were many reports that the rumored deal for IBM to buy Sun Microsystems was dead. Our take at the time was that wasn’t clear whether the deal was genuinely on its deadbed or the two companies were negotiating through media leaks.

Bloomberg is now reporting that the two companies may be ready to resume talks “if IBM makes a stronger commitment to close the acquisition.” Sun’s shares have slipped to $6.13 since the companies stopped talking, well below the reported IBM offer of $9.40 a share. This is obviously one to watch. This feels like one of those scenarios where things could come together quickly if the parties actually return to the table.

Report: IBM-Sun Deal Talks Unraveling

IBM’s bid to acquire Sun Microsystems appeared on the brink of collapse Sunday, as the boards of the two companies jousted over price and terms. It’s not clear whether the deal is genuinely on its deadbed or the two companies are negotiating through media leaks.

The New York Times reported that IBM has withdrawn its $7 billion offer Sun’s board balked at a reduced deal price of $9.40 per share. The Wall Street Journal reports similar details, saying IBM withdrew its bid after Sun terminated an agreement to negotiate exclusively with IBM. But the Journal said a deal remained possible.

“Late-stage deal negotiations are often full of brinkmanship, and it’s possible the two sides are hardening their positions only to strike a full deal in the near future,” writes the Journal (subscription), which said one source “suggested the situation was ‘fluid’ and the parties were still in touch by phone.”

Analysts seem to agree that Sun has more at stake, and might see its share price drop sharply if the deal collapses. Sun shares were trading in the $5 range when IBM’s interest became public, well below the reported $9.40 a share price of IBM’s latest bid.

Sun Outlines Plans for Open Cloud Platform

Sun Microsystems had planned for today to be a big news day. But the early headlines are perhaps not the ones it envisioned, as Sun’s introduction of its retooled cloud computing platform was quickly overshadowed by reports that the company is in deal talks with IBM.

Sun (JAVA) is launching its Open Cloud Platform today at its CommunityOne developer’s event in New York. As expected, the platform will be built around open source technologies and feature “virtual data center” technology from Q-Layer, which Sun acquired last year. Portions of the Sun cloud will be hosted at Switch Communications’ SuperNAP data center in Las Vegas, as we reported last week. 

Sun is positioning its public cloud as an open source alternative to proprietary clouds, with an emphasis on open APIs and interoperability - currently a hot topic in the cloud computing ecosystem. The platform’s first two services, Sun Cloud Storage Service and Sun Cloud Compute Service, won’t be available until this summer.   

Sun Shares Soar on Report of IBM Bid

The battle for the data center is heating up quickly. Shares of Sun Microsystems (JAVA) soared at today’s opening after a report that the company is in talks to be acquired by IBM. The Wall Street Journal said that IBM has discussed an offer of $6.5 billion for Sun, a huge premum over the recent trading range of about $5 a share.

Sun shares soared 66 percent at the opening bell, up $3.28 to $8.25 a share.

The deal comes on the heels of Monday’s announcement that networking giant Cisco Systems (CSCO) is entering the server business, a development that has raised expectations of a competitive response from leading server vendors IBM, HP and Dell. Buying Sun would extend IBM’s status as the largest server vendor, and build on the company’s strengths in data center design and Green IT.

Sun Cloud Will Live at the Vegas SuperNAP

Sun Microsystems isn’t yet saying what its new cloud computing service will look like, but at least we know where it’s going to live. Sun will host its new cloud offering in the SuperNAP, Switch Communications’ new mega-data center in Las Vegas, according to Sun CTO Greg Papadopoulos.

“We now have thousands of cores at the SuperNAP,” Papadopoulos said in this morning’s keynote address at AFCOM’s Data Center World conference at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. “It’s a really fascinating facility.”

The hosting arrangement extends the relationship between Sun and Switch Communications, which is already hosting Sun’s Network.com operation in a high-density section of SwitchNAP 4 in Las Vegas known as a T-SCIF heat management system (short for Thermal Separate Compartment in Facility). The T-SCIF uses containment systems to fully separate the hot and cold aisles, allowing the Network.com racks to run at 1,500 watts a square foot. See this video for a closer look at the Network.com T-SCIF installation at Switch.