InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
| August 18, 1997 |
Unix Power Play
Sun aims to steal SCO's server partners in a hotly contested battle for dominance in the Unix-on-Intel market. Meanwhile, HP makes its own moves.
By
Mary Hayes
The holy grail of a single Unix platform will probably never be secured, what with so many Unix vendors changi
ng partners and strategies at a dizzying pace. As Intel extends higher into the enterprise with products based on its x86 chips, corporate customers unconvinced that Windows NT will be reliable and scalable will soon face hard choices about which Unix environment will dominate on Intel servers.
Last year, Compaq was one of seven Intel-based server manufacturers that endorsed SCO Unix as the optimal choice for the Intel platform. But two weeks ago, NCR Corp., which SCO coun
ted among its supporters, unexpectedly defected to Sun's Solaris, which currently has a mere 4% share of the Unix-on-Intel market. McNealy says there's more to come to help that number grow.
Indeed, Brian Croll, director of marketing for Solaris, says Sun is talking to many vendors about shipping Solaris on Intel and says those in SCO's camp are ripe for the picking. One potential partner is Sequent Computer Systems Inc. in Beaverton, Ore., say industry sources. A Sequent official wouldn't comment on whether it was approached by Sun, but said, "We look at a lot of different partners that will enhance the portability of our systems."
Unix's Tepid Growth
In fact, some users believe a common hardware platform such as Intel's is more realistic for the Unix camp-and more promising. "I can understand the Unix companies having open interfaces and APIs, but why give up proprietary architectures?" says Larry Panatera, CIO of Snap-On Tools Inc. in Kenosha, Wis. "Having the ability to run your choice of a Unix operating system or NT on the same box has advantages. As the enterprise grows or changes, you can redeploy systems across the enterprise."
The promise of a strong market for Unix on Intel servers has piqued Sun's interest in the x86 platform. And it's the Merced chip-the 64-bit hybrid processor Intel is de
veloping with Hewlett-Packard-that is whetting Sun's appetite. "Solaris on Merced will be the way Merced will be fully exploited," says McNealy.
"We never believed there would be only one microprocessor architecture," he says. "On the server side, we see two microprocessor architectures: Intel and Sparc. On the operating system side, we see NT and Solaris. That's why we see Solaris on Sparc and Intel. We don't care who the third CPU or the third-place operating system is."
HP, which is working to get its HP-UX on the Merced chip, begs to differ. "In terms of robust Unix, there will be HP-UX, Solaris, and IBM AIX," predicts Bill Russell, HP's VP and general manager of the enterprise server group. But the turmoil of the fractured Unix camp has soured some users. "Unix vendors had the opportunity to succeed with a unified platform, but they never got there," says Jim Frazier, senior systems analyst at Celanese, a materials manufacturer in Narrows, Va. "They've been fighting for so long."
Sun, althoug
h it's just beginning its chase in the Intel market, may have an edge. Analysts say SCO's struggle to expand beyond its current role as a supplier for low-end servers is primarily the result of an identity problem. "Five years ago, technology people bought products. Now business people buy products," says IDC's Kusnetzky. "Companies like Microsoft and Sun know how to sell a vision, while SCO's message is almost all technology. SCO has got to find a way to aim its message at business people who aren't technologists."
That'll be tough to do. Many NCR users believe the company's decision to switch from SCO to Sun was the right move, because they say SCO Unix isn't ready to be an enterprise-level Unix platform. SCO has proliferated as a replicated server solution but hasn't achieved the same status as Solaris, they say. "Solaris is a dominant operating system," says Blankenbecler. "NCR System V has some negative aspects, and Solaris will be an improvement." Adds Julio Chavarria, IS manager at Blue Cross and B
lue Shield of Illinois in Chicago: "We pushed them to do it. We want open systems, and this is at least a step in that direction. It will force both vendors to be more price-competitive on the hardware."
Though SCO was burned by the NCR deal, SCO executives say Sun's view runs counter to what the market wants. "The Intel market is about partnerships. Nobody stands alone," says Doug Michels, SCO's executive VP and chief technology officer.
"The folks at SunSoft are talking to everybody," says William Wilson, VP of strategic business opportunities and services at Data General. "When Gemini [SCO's next-generation Unix] is 64-bit, we'll go to Gemini. We're disappointed that it's slower getting to market than we hoped, but we're betting on it." Other vendors declined to say whether they're being courted by Sun.
HP's Lonely Road
"The SCO relationship is not what it was intended to be," says Russell. "We were planning a stronger alliance, but that has actually not been the case." Russell believes SCO Unix will have a difficult time surviving if NT offers proven scalability.
Which Unix succeeds will be heavily influenced by Intel itself. Since HP is co-developing Merced with Intel, it has the advantage of proximity. Russell says HP will ship "Merced-ready" HP-UX systems in about a year. Intel also promised its support for SCO Unix as the standard for Intel a year ago but has since taken a m
ore neutral stance. "We do everything we can to support as much software as possible on the Intel platform," says Claude Wimberly, Intel's director of enterprise marketing.
However, analysts warn that despite promises of backward compatibility for HP-UX and Unix flavors that currently run on Intel, new issues could arise with Merced. "People will bring their source code to porting centers," says Peter Glaskowsky, senior PC analyst for the Microprocessor Report, a newsletter in Sebastapol, Calif. "Getting it running is usually very easy. But then you must spend two to 20 weeks of bug testing and keep a bunch of old machines for incremental upgrades."
If Merced does everything it promises, users will get a hardware platform for nearly any kind of server. That may hold more promise than Unix unification ever could.
--with additional reporting by
Bob Francis
,
Martin J. Garvey
, and
Tom Davey
See related story "
Compaq Stands Behind SCO Unix
"
|
un Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy has never been shy about making bold claims. "We see only two operating system platforms: Solaris and NT," he says, dismissing Unix competitors such as market leader SCO Unix, as well as HP-UX and IBM's AIX. This week, as the Santa Cruz Operation opens its annual SCO Forum, Sun is in the background, quietly but aggressively working to pick off SCO's server partners to gain a solid foothold in the growing market for Unix on the Intel platform.
This week at SCO Forum in Santa Cruz, Calif., Compaq Computer will solidify its partnership with SCO. Compaq will announce a sweeping array of alliances that include joint funding and development of recruitment programs aimed at value-added resellers and independent software vendors, as well as customer service, support, and product-testing programs.
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