For years Microsoft has argued that its homogenous approach to enterprise computing is inherently easier to manage and has lower maintenance costs than the more open computing environment evangelized by Sun Microsystems.
But Sun is about to fundamentally challenge that assumption by automating the change management procedures for applications that reside on Solaris and by extending the system management services for Solaris to the entire computing environment, including third-party application servers that run on top of Solaris.
This spring Sun will launch iChange, a repository to keep track of all changes made across the entire Solaris operating environment, said Andy Ingram, Sun director of marketing for enterprise server products.
Once deployed, this repository will become a place where IT managers can store system and software configurations. In addition, IT managers will be able to take advantage of the Flash feature in Solaris to automatically replicate those system and server configurations across a distributed enterprise. This ability will substantially reduce the costs associated with running a diverse computing environment made of best-of-breed components on top of Solaris.
"To us, it"s not just about the operating system; it"s about managing the total environment," Ingram said.
To complement this capability, Sun also plans to roll out a service that will allow customers to automatically share best configuration practices with one another, Ingram said.