When Suns Rays Went Greener!

No, we are not bringing a new discovery on the rays of the ubiquitous
sunshine but solely on environment-friendly decisions taken by Sun Microsystems
that have reaped rich dividends. Much before the color green became the flavor
of IT communities across the world, corporations such as Sun Microsystems had
initiated systems and processes that only led others to follow, giving a
first-mover advantage for this over a two-decade-old entity that prides in its
prowess of operating in the open source arena.

Rich Green, EVP, Sun Microsystems, says: Our eco-green efficiency covers a
wide variety of thingsour Niagara 2 microprocessor with its throughput per watt
is just unparallel in the market. Even if you look at Solaris and Dtrace, its
all about getting more efficiency in the existing platforms.

Green also went on to mention the intricacies of working on a Dtrace platform
where one achieves a 30% performance escalation in flat two and half hours of
working in Dtrace, which reduces power consumption by at least 30%. We have
built programs in which our servers and software are configured to provide more
eco-friendly and more efficient platforms, points out Green.

Giving credit to the culture at Sun, Green says: One reason we started early
is that a lot of work which we did all these years has been about efficiency,
whether its past performance or voltage or software performance, and this is
just another step. Application of efficiency and good design has become the
epicenter of this enterprise.

With developers worried most about the time-to-market in every application
they develop, the concern for most corporations is the path to be taken from
having a concept to developing a market around, building an ecosystem over it,
and having a user base that would give a competitive advantage.

Typically, the company that starts first gets the advantage. Because of this
rapid time to market, developers tend not to look far ahead and so they are not
thinking about what happens if I am actually successful in getting this
application to the market and I track a whole bunch of usersthe technology that
I am employing currently helps me to address challenges later, whether its
performance or scalability, and from a Solaris perspective, states Ian Murdock,
VP, Developer and Community Marketing, Sun Microsystems.

Murdock adds that promoting environment-centric initiatives or technologies
is the same as taking the right technological decisions upfront which allow the
company to augment in scale throughout.

With green technologies becoming increasingly important, Gartner Research
stated that by the end of 2008, companies across the world would make public
statements in their financial results on their carbon emission norms, and Sun
Microsystems continues to lead the way on this front.

Prasad Ramasubramanian

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in