Sun Microsystems is working on a project to let administrators quickly change the personalities of large groups of servers so the machines can switch from one type of work to another--a move Sun hopes could help stave off Intel server competition.
Called iChange, the project--a concept at this point, not a product--is intended to help Sun reduce the complexity customers face when running large collections of servers, said Anil Gadre, general manager of Sun"s Solaris operating system group.
iChange is named after the practice of re-assigning traffic lanes on bridges to accommodate rush hour crowds, Gadre said. On the Golden Gate Bridge, for example, southbound lanes catering to morning commuters pouring into San Francisco are switched to northbound lanes in the evening, when drivers head back toward Marin County. In the computer world, the idea would involve letting a financial services company, for instance, assign computers to handle stock trades in the morning and account reconciliation in the evening.