Well I finally got around to doing it and it only took 12 years...
I started putting my historical perspective on my days on the Sun Ray development together yesterday. As I was writing, I was amazed by all the happy memories that began to resurface. I never worked so hard or passionately on anything before Sun Ray came along in my career. It was for me a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'll never forget. Oh sure, there were always other important projects that did come along. But the real magic of that moment wasn't just about the time in which it had been created, or the fact that it was a truly disruptive technology, but it was about the people who were involved. .
A special note:
You may notice that I've mentioned no names of any of the development team. This was intentional for two reasons 1) protect people's individual privacy, and 2) to keep the focus on the technology itself. Sun Ray was team effort and I want to emphasize that fact. Because at one point we had over 250 people working on it at Sun alone. So to be fair I will leave names out.
I know that to some back in those days it was just another project, another day at the office, another fire to put out. But to me it was something special. We made computing history in our own small little way and by doing so helped pave the way for the Virtual Desktop trend that has made companies like VMware and Citrix become industry giants..I am very proud of the fact that Sun Ray is now in its third generation. Still pushing the envelope and doing it silently and at a low cost. Today its Oracle's only desktop solution and that quite an amazing feat given that when we started people used to laugh at the thought of our little box ever being a replacement for their manly Ultra 60's .
I always believed that the lifespan of the "fat client" was numbered in business and in the home and we see some signs of that trend happening today. Cloud Computing, smartphones, tablets, app stores and market places are all heading to an eventual future where virtualization is the norm. Eventually many of us will just carry a secure, lightweight portal appliance that is our low cost eco gateway into a greater virtual world. Sound like Science Fiction?
It isn't. Its here today, or at least the many of the pieces are..
Just like in the pre-browser days of the World Wide Web, the pieces surround us in one form or another. Its simply waiting for someone to bring it all together. It's not that far off.
My two cent's, anyways.
-Marc
I started putting my historical perspective on my days on the Sun Ray development together yesterday. As I was writing, I was amazed by all the happy memories that began to resurface. I never worked so hard or passionately on anything before Sun Ray came along in my career. It was for me a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'll never forget. Oh sure, there were always other important projects that did come along. But the real magic of that moment wasn't just about the time in which it had been created, or the fact that it was a truly disruptive technology, but it was about the people who were involved. .
A special note:
You may notice that I've mentioned no names of any of the development team. This was intentional for two reasons 1) protect people's individual privacy, and 2) to keep the focus on the technology itself. Sun Ray was team effort and I want to emphasize that fact. Because at one point we had over 250 people working on it at Sun alone. So to be fair I will leave names out.
I know that to some back in those days it was just another project, another day at the office, another fire to put out. But to me it was something special. We made computing history in our own small little way and by doing so helped pave the way for the Virtual Desktop trend that has made companies like VMware and Citrix become industry giants..I am very proud of the fact that Sun Ray is now in its third generation. Still pushing the envelope and doing it silently and at a low cost. Today its Oracle's only desktop solution and that quite an amazing feat given that when we started people used to laugh at the thought of our little box ever being a replacement for their manly Ultra 60's .
I always believed that the lifespan of the "fat client" was numbered in business and in the home and we see some signs of that trend happening today. Cloud Computing, smartphones, tablets, app stores and market places are all heading to an eventual future where virtualization is the norm. Eventually many of us will just carry a secure, lightweight portal appliance that is our low cost eco gateway into a greater virtual world. Sound like Science Fiction?
It isn't. Its here today, or at least the many of the pieces are..
Just like in the pre-browser days of the World Wide Web, the pieces surround us in one form or another. Its simply waiting for someone to bring it all together. It's not that far off.
My two cent's, anyways.
-Marc
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