Sun To Unify I.T. AssetsSun To Unify I.T. Assets

People aren't interested in servers right now, they're interested in software," says Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy. More specifically, they're interested in ways to better manage infrastructure. Sun last week at its SunNetwork conference in San Francisco unveiled plans to develop a strategy for building intelligent software and network-centric technology to help customers make better use of their IT investments.

The strategy, called N1, will include software and services for aggregating distributed IT assets--servers, storage, software, and networking equipment--so they operate as a unified entity. The first piece of N1, due later this year, includes virtualization software that centralizes data-center management by turning each system managed into a virtual LAN. By the middle of next year, Sun plans to offer services-provisioning software that automates the configuration of the virtual LANs. Hewlett-Packard and IBM also have initiatives to reduce the complexity of data-center management.