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Sun and Intel toast server marriage
January 22, 2007
Sun and Intel’s differences dissolved over a “very good bottle” of Barolo at San Francisco’s Delfina restaurant a few months ago, according to respective chief executives Jonathan Schwartz and Paul Otellini.
The two sat side by side at this morning’s press conference to announce Sun would begin using Intel’s Xeon processors in its servers from late in the first half, while Intel would start promoting Sun’s Solaris operating system from today.
It would have been hard to imagine Scott McNealy, Sun’s contentious former CEO, forming a similar double act. But Mr Schwartz seems to have adopted a conciliatory approach since taking charge in April last year.
Sun and Intel are neighbours in Santa Clara in Silicon Valley and Messrs Schwartz and Otellini are San Francisco residents, prompting the Sun chief’s invitation to dine at a favourite local restaurant.
“We thought there’s an opportunity here, let’s get busy,” he said of the outcome.
Mr Otellini said the deal was driven by momentum for Solaris and Sun’s servers and for Intel’s new processor line.
It all makes sense in expanding markets for both companies, but there will still be rivalry at the upper end – Solaris still does not support Intel’s Itanium processor, which Mr McNealy once caustically referred to as the sinking “Itanic”.
