Sun Buys Lustre - A File System!!!
OK, so I'm cynical, but am I to believe that this is mere coincidence? Netapp sues Sun for patent infringement over Sun's ZFS file system. Sun sort of denies that it infringed, tries to change the subject, and attempts to incite a civil war between Texas and California. A week later Sun buys a file system company.
Once again, let me stress that I am no lawyer - but like many (not all) lawyers, I do have several humanesque traits - such as common sense (and at least two nice suits). If nothing else, does not the timing of this make you scratch your head?
The move is pretty good as a hedge in case a judge slams Sun with an injunction and won't let them ship ZFS - especially since I figure a big revenue hit for a quarter or so makes them technically insolvent - so if that happens they will need to be able to ship something. Lustre has long been an accepted, well utilized file system within that bastion of capitalism and business computing - the scientific community. I don't think it runs unless the admin either wears a white lab coat, or sandals in the basement of an academic lab. I have no idea how easy or hard it would be to drop Lustre in to replace ZFS, I can only surmise that there weren't many other options at hand, though I'm sure they could also have used Redhat or Suse's file systems.
Regardless, it sure doesn't instill rip roaring confidence in their defense of the Netapp case. Sun does have a habit of doing things like this with no regard for what others might think, or even without how it might possibly affect their legal stance, so it's hard to say. I mean, it's not like they just OEM'ed Microsoft Windows server or anything...........Ooops. I'm starting to feel like either I'm in the twilight zone, or the industry is just screwing with me. Either way, cut it out.
Fear not! You may recall that a couple of months ago, before the acquisition, CFS announced that Lustre was going to use ZFS exclusively as its object store on both Solaris and Linux. That remains true. The deal with Lustre isn't hedging, it's doubling down.
---I didn't know - so thanks for the clarification. So what you are saying is that Sun is so confident in ZFS defeating those court loving appliance guys that you bought a company that uses ZFS. Well, if that's the case, then I'm digging the macho stance. I still like to see an executive tag team cage brawl, but this is at least something. Bravo. - Steve
Posted by: Jeff Bonwick | September 14, 2007 at 12:28 AM