Sun pushes reference architectures to increase market share

Sun’s reference architectures cut implementation time, risk and complexity, and help customers achieve faster return on investment, says Gaurav Patra

Reference architectures are designed to help large and small enterprises cut costs, reduce risks, lessen complexity, speed up delivery of services and open new revenue possibilities, says Ravi Pendekanti

Sun Microsystems is a company traditionally known as a product and technology vendor. The company is now changing its old image to get into new avenues of selling services and concepts such as reference architectures.

Today, even simple networks have multiple hardware components for different applications; they are becoming more complicated too. “The IT industry has become very complex in nature. Reference architectures are designed to help large and small enterprises cut costs, reduce risks, lessen complexity, speed up delivery of services and open new revenue possibilities,” explains Ravi Pendekanti, senior director, reference architectures/CRS, enterprise systems products, Sun Microsystems. The goal is to define the hardware and software components needed to build end-to-end solutions that meet specific business needs.

Reference architectures have been designed, tested and documented so that users can reduce the complexity, costs and risks of deploying new technologies in their enterprises. Sun’s reference architectures combine a documented multi-tiered architecture and recommended technologies from Sun as well as other vendors. Pendekanti says that the rigorous design, pre-integration, testing and documentation that is provided by Sun Programmes combine to make it easier for IT users to deploy new data services and move mission-critical workloads from one platform to another.

What is a reference architecture?

Sun has three primary methodologies for implementing solutions and maximising quality: Reference Architectures, Infrastructure Solutions and iForce Solutions. All these function like building blocks for a network. A reference architecture is the foundation, providing a pre-tested, integrated and documented infrastructure layer. It defines the hardware and software components needed to build end-to-end solutions that can meet specific business needs. “Our reference architectures combine documented multi-tiered architectures with recommended technology products from Sun as well as other vendors, and give guidance during implementation,” says Pendekanti. He says that before choosing to implement them customers can go through a proof-of-concept system at Sun’s iForce Centre; in India the centre is at Bangalore. The reference architecture programme follows all crucial steps outlined in the iForce initiative.

“Customers have the opportunity to simulate their workloads in the iForce solutions centre. The ability to test a solution with the workload and data reduces the risk and speeds up deployment of a new multi-tier infrastructure,” says Pendekanti. Apart from this, all reference architecture implementations are supported by Sun Professional Services or Sun’s iForce partners, and components can be ordered through the Sun customer-ready systems programme.

Benefits

Pendekanti says that this approach has definite benefits over the traditional approach. In the latter, the customer has to know everything related to the running of different applications, or else find external experts. In the process, both time and money are spent. “When we provide reference architectures we stand by the customer. Through this we provide a single-point solution to solve all customer issues and also validate them,” he says.

The scalable technology enables Sun’s reference architectures to provide future-ready business platforms. The company’s customer-ready systems programme also enables quick deployment of the pre-integrated system. Another important aspect is that it increases the cost of utilisation and lowers the complexity of new infrastructure. Since Sun’s reference architectures are built on SunTone standards, they increase the quality of networked service delivery. “One of the biggest benefits of reference architectures is that they protect investments in existing systems. With reference architectures one can integrate Sun as well as the third-party software products,” says Pendekanti.

Initiatives

Sun recently added five more reference architectures and two infrastructure solutions to its portfolio of 30 repeatable solution methodologies. The new Sun Migration Reference Architecture for Tru64 systems and Web application firewall, supply chain management, secure Web server and enhanced communication services reference architectures are available to Sun customers at no additional charge. The new Sun Infrastructure Solution for Tru64 Migration and Sun Infrastructure Solution for Mainframe Migration augment core reference architectures with financing and professional services to further reduce cost and complexity of implementation. Migration Reference Architecture for Tru64 systems and Infrastructure Solution for Tru64 Migration help customers—particularly in life sciences, telecommunications, utilities, education and city and state governments—to ease migration from the discontinued AlphaServer Tru64 systems to proven, reliable Sun systems.

On the other hand, the Infrastructure Solution for Mainframe Migration helps customers get rid of legacy mainframe platforms and expensive software licensing fees. This cost-efficient solution builds on the previously announced Sun Mainframe Rehosting Reference Architecture to further simplify migration to the Sun platform. According to Sun’s claims, customers leveraging methodologies in the Mainframe Migration Reference Architecture and Sun Infrastructure Solution for Mainframe Migration have realised savings of as much as 50 percent or more and a return on investment in a 12-24 month timeframe.

Apart from this, the company has also unveiled the Sun Open Net Environment(SunONE)-based Application Services Reference Architecture to accelerate the deployment of successful services on demand, including Web services. The SunONE Application Services Reference Architecture addresses the complexity, time constraint and other Web services deployment issues enterprises face by providing Web services solutions based on the SunONE architecture and Sun Fire servers.

Sun expects that the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and large corporates will opt for this new initiative. The company is also looking at partnerships with vendors who have expertise in these segments. For example, the company has inked a deal with Infosys to roll out these architectures in the BFSI sector. In addition, Pendekanti is also hopeful of partnerships with some infrastructure management service providers.

gaurav@expresscomputeronline.com