Deciding that it can not afford to be left out, and that it needs to participate to be a credible enterprise-wide provider, Sun Microsystems Inc’s hardware arm waded into the local area network server market at Networld-Interop in Atlanta last week with a line of pre-configured, easy-to-use Unix servers aimed at the application sector of that market (CI No 2,498). For delivery in November, the two Netra machines run Solaris 2.4, with one an Internet server, the other tailored for systems management, with groupware by mid-1995 and database-oriented configurations to follow. The company is aiming to compete with the various offerings in the personal computer application server space rather than attempting to usurp NetWare-dominated file and print local net servers. It points to market analysts International Data Corp’s numbers that suggest 1.2m local network servers will ship this year, 27% of them into for applications, the rest as file and print servers, with applucations rising to 40% of the total by 1997. Sun’s hardware unit has taken standard Sparcserver architecture, the 5 or the 20, and optimised it for use by non-experts. It provides stuff like a 30-minute, speech-driven installation procedure and easy-to-use administration and configuration tools on top of Solaris 2.4, discarding or hiding stuff that is not required, for providing application services to personal computer networks. The Netra Internet server offers electronic mail, file transfer, local network connection, some Internet browsers, with more to come, standard security, plus an optional Checkpoint Software Technologies Ltd’s Firewall. There is a step-by-step guide to finding an Internet provider and to building Internet services. But Sun advises that it will not be offering a bundled Mosaic implementation until there is a commercial one available. The Netra system management server is preconfigured with SunSelect’s SolarNet networking system for integrating and managing TCP/IP-based personal computer networks running MS-DOS or Windows with SolarNet clients from a Unix box. SolarNet, previewed last October (CI No 2,276), is ending its beta test run and is due in November. It includes Sun’s NIS+ naming, dynamic host configuration protocol, Simple Network Management Protocol support and authentication.

Buy the Unix skills

Both these and future Netras are aimed at small businesses or departments that do not want or need, or cannot afford, to buy the Unix skills a full-blown Sparcserver would require. But isn’t a box with pre-tuned Unix system software and applications something more than the local area network server community could use? Sun concedes that marketing Netras will be more challenging than doing the technology, reckoning that it needs to be in the top three in that sector within a short space of time to give the effort a reasonable chance of longevity. Groupware servers will be kitted with Novell Inc’s Internet Packet Exchange/Sequential Packet Exchange stacks and future database servers will be offered more ease of use features for low-end database technology. Eventually the Sun Microsystems Computer Corp software will be unbundled and passed to SunSoft, from where it will eventually feature in Solaris x86 and other releases. Prices for Internet Netra i5 (Sparcserver 5) start at $6,150 with 70MHz microSparc II, 16Mb RAM and 535Mb disk or $8,500 with an 85MHz CPU, 32Mb RAM and 1Gb disk. The one-to-four 60MHz SuperSparc Netra i20 (Sparcserver 20) starts at $13,200 with 32Mb RAM and 1Gb disk. The 85MHz Netra s5 systems management box is $10,400 with 32Mb RAM and 1Gb disk; the Netra s20 starts at $18,300 with similar memory. Netras are value-added reseller-only products, except in Japan, and Sun is easing reseller qualification restrictions for them so it can go against Cisco Systems Inc, Compaq Computer Corp, IBM Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co in the channel; Sun OEM customers are in talks for Netra and it hopes to sell thousands.