Sun Microsystems Inc put a bit more detail to its future plans for its Solaris unix operating system yesterday, promising a three phased roll-out of what it calls Solaris for the Enterprise- layers of software on top of the Solaris 2.6 kernel aimed at the high-end corporate market. Phase one, announced today but generally available in the first quarter of next year, includes support for Sun Cluster 2.0 clustering, and support for 64-bit files and file systems, the beginning of its 64-bit roll out. There is also support for hot- pluggable devices, such as disk and memory, and the promised availability of a seven day per week, 365 days a year support service. Phase two, due some time next year adds a full 64-bit kernel – though Sun says that old 32-bit apps will continue to work – large scale systems management, optimization for transaction processing monitors, live upgrade support and further reliability, availability and scalability features, some of which Sun is getting as part of its Solaris OEM agreement with NCR Corp (CI No 3,218). Phase three, in 1999, will add further clustering support, global networking and device access to Solaris. Sun has already shipped a version of Solaris for intranets, aimed at departments and workgroups, and next year plans a version tweaked for internet service providers, all based on the same kernel.
