Sun Frees Digital Archiving

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has donated the source code for the Sun StorageTek(TM) 5800 System, the world's first integrated digital archive storage system that is powered by the Solaris(TM) Operating System (OS) and built using open source software. Developers can freely download the Sun StorageTek 5800 binary code that runs on virtually any x86 system for free at http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/honeycomb

The latest effort in Sun's commitment to open source and open storage solutions, the Sun StorageTek 5800 (previously known as Project Honeycomb") code has been donated to the OpenSolaris storage and Java.net communities. In addition, it has been submitted to the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and is under consideration. The Fedora Commons open source group will both contribute its software into OpenSolaris and Java.net and use the Sun StorageTek 5800 source code for its development efforts.

The increasing need to digitize and preserve business images, records, consumer- and corporate-created digital content, e-science work and high-performance computing (HPC) data for hundreds of years is making file-based data and the management of file-based storage assets a serious challenge. The release of the highly resilient, easy-to-manage Sun StorageTek 5800 source code is a viable choice versus closed, proprietary offerings that are expensive and leave customers vulnerable to vendor lock-in.

Sun StorageTek 5800 Open Edition can be downloaded for free, allowing developers to experience the simplicity of storing and retrieving fixed content data and metadata efficiently. The purchase of the StorageTek 5800 System provides greater enhanced RAS (reliability, availability,serviceability) and includes extreme data protection against data corruption and data loss.

“The popular Sun StorageTek 5800 'Honeycomb' system has revolutionized the economics of storing, managing and archiving fixed content data,” said Graham Lovell, senior director, storage servers and appliances, Sun Microsystems, Inc. “Sun now makes fixed content object storage free and open – We've donated the source code for this next-generation technology to help create communities that will more easily find answers to fixed-content data storage issues and save customers money over closed, proprietary technologies.”Sun Microsystems Inc.