Virtualization, VirtualBox & SUN
The author writes, "Over the years, the server virtualization strategy at Sun Microsystems has been spotty"
SUN has been doing virtualization since 1997 - it is not spotty, as the author indicated.
The author writes, "the company has yet to explain where VirtualBox will fit into its server virtualization strategy, if at all, in the long term."
I am uncertain why the author does not understand how virtual box fits into SUN's virtualization offering.
The author may want to view this SUN web site for where VirtualBox fits in the overall portfolio:
http://www.sun.com/software/products/xvm/
or read the SUN web site how VirtualBox specifically fits in
http://www.sun.com/software/products/virtualbox/
or read the announcement back in February of 2008 of why VirtualBox was important
http://www.sun.com/software/innotek/
SUN's virtualization offering seems to be broader than any other hardware or software vendor...
- virtualize at the NIC level (CrossBow)
- virtualize at the file system level (ZFS)
- virtualize at the firmware (Dynamic Domains)
- virtualize at the HyperVisor (xVM Server & Logical Domains)
- virtualize at the OS (Resource Management, Solaris 9 Containers, Solaris 10 Zones)
- virtualize the client (VDI with SunRay)
- virtualize in any OS client (VirtualBox)
- virtualize the application in any OS client (X, Secure Gobal Desktop, Java VM)
- virtualization management/operations (xVM OpsCenter 2.0)
Are there holes? Other vendor holes are gaping in comparison!