Sun Mumbles Again
Since everyone (including dear old mom) has bashed Sun’s acquisition of StorageTek, I’ll avoid adding to the din. But a quote from Sun’s leader regarding this event is worth noting:
“We have, with our ID management directory, Java card, access manager and Web services stack, the ability — from develop, create, capture manage and store and archive — to handle the entire lifecycle of data securely with a better chance of the appropriate levels of privacy and availability of any body else out there in the market,” McNealy said on a conference call.
And no mention of servers . . . .
Perhaps little else has shown how the commoditization of server technology is forcing vendors to seek margins elsewhere. This is direct result of Linux, of the Intel/AMD interoperability, and of IBM/HP/Dell pushing both into the laps of waiting customers.
However, this deal is likely for naught. Sun has an ongoing affliction which, politely classified, would be called Mumble-Mumble Disorder. Sun is amazingly inarticulate about everything except the artful bashing of competitors. I love McNealy’s bombastic proclamations as much as the next geek, but that doesn’t sell technology.
During the tech downturn, every vendor in Silicon Valley claimed they were going “back to basics”, and many kept their promises . . . well, if mass firings can be called a basic strategy. One of the basics of technology marketing is the art of communication: telling the customer why your wares are valuable to them. No CxO or techie will invest time or money unless there is a value proposition and a brand to push it. Sun little of the first, less of the second, and no ability to communicate either.
Sun once had talent for this, but no more. I fully expect them to mumble their way out of the storage boom as well. And to think, for $4.1 billion dollars they could have hired me to fix their communications problems.
“We have, with our ID management directory, Java card, access manager and Web services stack, the ability — from develop, create, capture manage and store and archive — to handle the entire lifecycle of data securely with a better chance of the appropriate levels of privacy and availability of any body else out there in the market,” McNealy said on a conference call.
And no mention of servers . . . .
Perhaps little else has shown how the commoditization of server technology is forcing vendors to seek margins elsewhere. This is direct result of Linux, of the Intel/AMD interoperability, and of IBM/HP/Dell pushing both into the laps of waiting customers.
However, this deal is likely for naught. Sun has an ongoing affliction which, politely classified, would be called Mumble-Mumble Disorder. Sun is amazingly inarticulate about everything except the artful bashing of competitors. I love McNealy’s bombastic proclamations as much as the next geek, but that doesn’t sell technology.
During the tech downturn, every vendor in Silicon Valley claimed they were going “back to basics”, and many kept their promises . . . well, if mass firings can be called a basic strategy. One of the basics of technology marketing is the art of communication: telling the customer why your wares are valuable to them. No CxO or techie will invest time or money unless there is a value proposition and a brand to push it. Sun little of the first, less of the second, and no ability to communicate either.
Sun once had talent for this, but no more. I fully expect them to mumble their way out of the storage boom as well. And to think, for $4.1 billion dollars they could have hired me to fix their communications problems.
