OK. Short Straw Tells McNealy We’re Now a ‘Microsoft Certified Gold Partner’
by John Paczkowski
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 7:27 AM PT
Sun Microsystems, whose co-founder and Chairman Scott McNealy once described Microsoft’s Internet Information Server as “the Corvair of Web servers–unsafe at any speed” has become a Windows Server OEM.
Extending a partnership first struck in 2004, Sun will now resell and install Windows on its x86-based servers. For Sun, the deal is a way to drive broad adoption of its technologies. “One hundred percent of Sun’s customers use both Solaris and Windows,” said Sun Executive Vice President John Fowler. “We have an opportunity to extend our technology leadership in this critical area with customers that we share.”
For Microsoft, it’s a way to better compete in the virtualization market. Under the terms of today’s agreement, both companies pledged to optimize their server operating system for virtualization of the other’s software. And that’s an important issue for Microsoft. As Microsoft Watch’s Joe Wilcox notes, Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft’s next-generation Viridian virtualization technology have both been delayed. Said Wilcox, “Virtualization interoperability provides a place for Windows Server 2003 on Solaris and an opportunity to better position Windows Server 2003 for consolidation of Solaris servers.”
