Client: Sun Microsystems Inc.
Project: N1 System Manager
Launched: May 2005
Sun Microsystems had a long history of providing rock-solid hardware and was at the epicenter of the internet boom. Sadly they were also at the epicenter of the ensuing bust, when they failed to keep up with the rapid changes and commoditization of server and network hardware. Around 2003-2004, they began to migrate their strategies away from pure hardware and focus more on services and software, and they created lots of hype around solution-style projects like N1. Sadly there was little in the way of substance to their grand N1 vision, with the exception of some strategic acquisitions of companies like CenterRun and Terraspring. But all of that changed at NC05Q2 with the announcement of Sun N1 System Manager.
This was the first product released under the N1 moniker that was truly designed with N1 in mind, and was clearly designed as the platform for future expansion and enhancement. The purpose of the software was simple: make it easy for data center system adminstrators to manage their Sun hardware, such that they could easily control power functions, OS deployments, and patching.
The development of this software was important for me, in that I was involved with all aspects of the user experience design, ranging from architecting the user object model to developing usecases, to defining the syntax of a new style of command line interface.
Some of the interesting features of the Sun N1 System Manager were:
- AJAX-style event-based screen refreshing
- Command Line console integrated into web interface (not a java applet)
- Graphical representation of managed servers with updated monitoring status
- Drag-and-Drop OS and patch deployment to single servers or groups of servers
- Simplified console-style command line syntax with tab completion and history
The future of this product seemed bright, as it was designed as the logical platform for building out the rest of the N1 vision, where users would be able to manage all aspects of their service offerings from the high-level service level objectives down to the low levels of server provisioning. Sadly, I left Sun in Jun of 2006 after the release of the first version product, and with the recent acquistion by Oracle, it's unclear if the product was able to meet its full potential.
