March 26, 2001

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ONLINE EXCLUSIVE:
McNealy Offers His Vision Of The Disappearing User Interface

Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy recently sat down with InformationWeek editors John Soat, Karyl Scott, and Jason Levitt to discuss Sun's vision of Web services and the issue of simplicity.

InformationWeek: How will Web services simplify things for IS professionals and the corporation?

McNealy: They'll help us deliver Webtone. We're essentially trying to do what Bell Labs did. The telephone infrastructure is actually pretty simple--a core set of standards and you have two vendors to choose from. You have one big switch that handles everything. When something goes wrong, you have one neck to choke. But in any data center of a Fortune 500 company, it's like Noah's Ark--two of everything. You go to AT&T or AOL, and they have a very homogeneous, scalable, reliable, and manageable environment--a lights-out kind of switch room.

InformationWeek: So how is Sun going to help corporate IS get there?

McNealy: The problem Sun is trying to solve isn't as easy as a browser connected to the big Webtone switch. There are lots of intermediary layers from a server, to a storage device, to the network and content-distribution services and all the way out to your cell phone or smart card. Sun is focused on providing data integrity, speed, quality of service, reliability, and authentication.

InformationWeek: What are the core areas Sun is investing its R&D dollars in?

McNealy: Sun is spending $2.5 billion on R&D. We're developing processors, modules, motherboards, storage, content distribution, overlays, mail tone, calendar tone, news tone, app server tone, directory tone, certificate server tone, the Webtop architecture--all of those things.

InformationWeek: What's your vision of handheld computers and wireless?

McNealy: My vision is the Internet takes care of everything. Clocks are connected to the Internet. I want the clock to go out over the Internet after a power outage and reset itself. I want that light bulb when it's almost out to be monitored by GE Lighting and order a new bulb.

InformationWeek: Those will be based on Web services?

McNealy: This is what smart Web services are: When I'm out driving and my gas is running low, the computer in my tank holds a real-time auction with the gas pumps in the area. It says, "Who wants to fill my tank?" It's a sport utility vehicle; 30 gallons rock on. Sun has been saying "The Network Is The Computer" for years, and that's the ultimate abstraction of Web services.

InformationWeek: For the user interface to become more simplified, don't the back-end systems have to become a lot more intelligent and complex?

McNealy: My vision is that the user interface goes away completely. I want the light bulb to talk to GE. I want my car to talk to the gas station. I don't want to have to log on to the Internet--ever. That's my fantasy.

InformationWeek: To achieve simplicity from Web services, does the IT manager have to turn only to Sun?

McNealy: No. If we don't do a good job, go to somebody else. Our solutions are open. We don't lock you in.

InformationWeek: Is anybody embracing these practices today?

McNealy: We're doing it for AOL. We build a pod for AOL on our factory floor. We load the software, integrate the different applications, tune it, test it, and ship it. When it arrives at AOL, it's ready to run. Each pod can support 28,500 AOL customers. AOL just spent $900 million with Sun for this sort of thing.

InformationWeek: Are you doing that type of pre-configured system for non-service companies?

McNealy: Yes, but we tend to go for service providers.

InformationWeek: What are you telling CIOs about this vision?

McNealy: I say, let's talk about server consolidation. That's the best way for CIOs to simplify their environment. We bring our professional services folks, we count their servers, audit each one, find out what they're doing. We get the customer onto a common mail system, directory, Web services, and architecture and then we say, all right, we need one Web server, directory server, mail server, and we can get rid of 4,000 servers. Then we say, let's outsource the servers to Exodus and we'll cluster them so that they have high availability and employees can get at it from any device, any time, any place, anywhere.

 

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