Starfire Launch: Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore
		by Bill Petro


In our last issue we looked at the lowest end of Sun's product line, the
launch of the JavaStation Network Computer. This time we look at the
highest end of Sun's product line, the introduction of the new Starfire,
AKA the Ultra Enterprise 10 000. I was involved in the launch of this
product in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.


Background:

Last year when Cray Research was up for sale, Sun acquired the Business
Systems Division that was building a Solaris-based, multi-processor SPARC
chip-based super business computer system. It was a perfect fit with Sun
and for Sun. With the Ultra Enterprise 10 000 launch, it is clear that Sun
is pushing the "outside-of-the-envelope" by addressing a new market: the
high-end data center. 

There were three hardware product areas introduced: the Enterprise 10 000,
the RSM Array 2000, and the Enterprise Tape Library System. First, the
Starfire itself.


1) Starfire

The Starfire can have a from 16 to 64 SPARC processors, 32 Sbus and 64 I/O
slots, 20 terabytes of data storage (see below) and, 64 gigabytes of
memory, all within a single chassis. 


    "It's just a hunka hunka burning speed"

The latest TPC numbers from the Transaction Processing Council, which
publish a test of over a dozen queries against a database, shows Sun
winning again. TPC-D benchmark's are performed to demonstrate data
warehousing and decision support capabilities and offer customers a
reasonable way to evaluate systems under well-known processing loads.

    "It's top of the line,
    pick of the pack,
    cream of the crop,
    Number One and moving higher all the time!"

Indeed, Sun is the first to break the 2000 mark on the TPC-D benchmark with
new industry-leading results for performance and price/performance at 300
GB, surpassing all competitive results by at least 34% with up to 4 times
better price/performance.


    It's just a hunka hunka burning power"

Dynamic Partitioning:

The Starfire has an innovative Dynamic Partitioning system, that allows it
to have several "virtual" systems online with their own OS, CPU, and
memory.  They can be dynamically created and resized, allowing for realtime
resource reallocation. This is ideal for a company that has several
departmental servers that can now be centralized for better administration
into a single cabinet. It is great as well for companies who may have
different kinds of servers: production, development, test... which each
need their own version or revision of the operating system. Indeed, one
could migrate an application safely from one revision of the OS to the
next, and roll back if necessary. This provides a safe way to migrate
software. Data warehousing systems for decision support are best situated
if they operational database system is not on the same machine as the data
warehouse because they are each optimized for different purposes, but with
a Starfire, you can have several "virtual" systems, and maintain both systems
on the same platform.

Gigaplane-XB:

The Gigaplane-XB is a unique cross-bar architecture, which eliminates the
common bottlenecks of traditional bus architectures. Typically, a symmetric
multi-processor (SMP) system will have a number of CPU boards with many CPU
processors on each one. With the Starfire, because it has CPU-CPU
interconnect via the Gigaplane-XB, the difference between low latency
on-board CPUs and higher latency off-board CPUs is negligible. The
theoretical burst speed is a phenomenal 12.8 gigabytes per second.
Sustained, it is 10 GB/sec.


    It's just a hunka hunka burning reliability"

RAS: Reliability, Availability, Serviceability

There are no single points of hardware failure. All of the components are
completely hot-swappable. It even has redundant power cords. It is ideal
for large data centers and especially data warehouse environments.


2) RSM Array 2000

The RSM Array 2000 is a disk subsystem that supports 20 terabytes of
storage and offers fully-redundant components for high availability. The
subsystem supports RAID levels 0, 1, 0+1, 3, and hardware RAID 5. It has
hot-swap components as well. Sun has announced support for non-Solaris (HP
and NT) hosts in the future.


3) Enterprise Tape Library 4/1000

If you're going to have big data, you're going to need big backup. This is
a four-drive backup system based on a digital linear tape (DLT) subsystem
that can store up to 2 terabytes of data per library. It includes both
management and monitoring software.


Java

No report is complete without mentioning Java. The Enterprise Tape Library
Software is a Web-based, Java-powered application that allows IS managers
to make any desktop a storage management console. It manages backups,
archives, and hierarchical storage management issues, as well as file
system and volume management. It is built on the Java Management API
(JMAPI) a framework endorsed by 46 ISVs for heterogeneous, cross-platform
enterprise management over the Web.


Service

SunService is the second fastest growing part of Sun (second only to Java :-). 
Sun's SunVIP program allows customers to get enhanced single phone number
support on both software and hardware from Sun's partners world wide. New
support capabilities in Latin America and Asia were introduced with this
launch.


Storage

One of Sun's best kept secrets is its investment in storage. Indeed, Sun's
storage install base is already as large as EMC's. Sun currently has 2
petabytes (2 000 terabytes) of high-end RAID storage installed, the highest
in the Unix industry. That's 10 million years worth of the Wall Street
Journal, or 200 times the size of the largest library in the world, the US
Library of Congress.


The Launch Event

I participated in the Asia South launch tour. The morning was dedicated to
training our resellers and distributors. Chris Morris of the Gartner Group
in Sydney addressed some of the current business drivers in high end data
centers. Oracle and SunService gave talks following mine.

Specifically, I discussed the Starfire with its world record-breaking TPC
benchmarks and innovative Dynamic System Domain capabilities; the
mind-boggling 20+ TB RSM 2000 Array storage system with its robust RAS
capabilities; and the Solstice data and security management products based
on the Java Management API and third party "best-of-breed" partners.

There were also presentations from Shahin Khan, Director of Starfire
Product group (Business Systems Division) and Steve Rudinsky, Starfire
Product Manager, both from Beaverton, Oregon.


Press Representatives

We then had a lunch for 25 representatives of the press where they
received a high-level overview and then each of us from the team
answered specific questions from the guests.

The press represented in Bangkok included the Bangkok Post, Thailand Times,
Thai Sky TV, Wattachak Daily, etc. In Kuala Lumpur, I answered questions
from the Sun (no relation), IT Malaysia, IT Publications (New Straits Times
Press), and Nanyang Siang Pau (Chinese). In Singapore, I spoke a lunch with
LAN Magazine (Asia-Pacific Telecommunication, PC Week Asia, and Asia
Business News.


Business in Thailand

IBM has a strong installed base in Thailand, and many of the questions I
was asked by the press wondered how Sun could possibly believe customers
would choose a Starfire over an IBM mainframe. I returned, "Who could have
imagined, in 1971 when the Japanese engine/motorcycle company HONDA
introduced its first car into the US, how much they would take market
share from Ford and GM?"

Sun's goal, however, is not to displace mainframes, but to enhance the data
center with a faster-than-mainframe system. In many cases, companies
already have large mainframe-only and custom applications. Without
disrupting their shop, they can enhance it with a powerful system that's
ready for the year 2000.


Business in Malaysia

The country's economic growth is a robust 8.2% with a 3.7% inflation rate.
In the news now is the MSC, the "Multimedia Super Corridor." It has 7
areas. There are now 4 Sun is involved with: electronic government, smart
schools, multipurpose cards, tele-medicine. (A smartcard typically has 3
purposes: ID, access (security), transactions.)

Sun sits on the working committee. It will take 4.5 months to define the
vision more specifically.


Business in Singapore

Sun is installing servers in every school, every police headquarters,
and very ministry in the country. By 2000 we expect a Sun server in
every enterprise: small, medium, and large.