Sun Donates StorageTek Code to Open Source Community

March 3, 2008: Following its recent archival product release, Sun has announced that it has donated the source code for its StorageTek 5800 System to the OpenSolaris and Java.net open source communities.

Previously known as “Project Honeycomb”, Sun has released the code in an attempt to overcome the challenges associated with the long-term archival of our increasing large tracts of digital information such as business images, records, e-science work and high-performance computing data.

Storing this information for hundreds of years is making file-based data and the management of file-based storage assets a serious challenge, and Sun believes that its StorageTek 5800 source code is more viable choice than closed, proprietary offerings that are both expensive and prone to vendor lock-in.

StorageTek 5800 Open Edition can be downloaded for free, and has also been submitted to the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) for consideration.

“The popular Sun StorageTek 5800 'Honeycomb' system has revolutionised the economics of storing, managing and archiving fixed content data,” said Graham Lovell, senior director, storage servers and appliances at Sun. “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.”

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