First Runner-up:

“Sun customers are those who see IT as a competitive weapon.” A concise insight into the company’s posture and executive-level thinking; Mr. Schwartz was referring to three core markets:

·         HPC: Not just TACC and other supercomputing centers, but FedEx, ExxonMobil, and other enterprises into which HPC is moving

·         Enterprise Infrastructure: GE, GM, AmEx, and the companies like ebay and salesforce.com who provide infrastructure to them

·         Web buildout: facebook and Linked in, of course, but also those who use them to build networks, such as Bank of America and Virgin

Grand Prize:

“We have removed ourselves from the ranks of GSA vendors, as have many of our peers, and are focusing on serving our customers.” This – and the long, uncomfortable silences that preceded it and followed it – were in response to the question, “What happened with the GSA contracts?” This last question of the last Q & A on the last day of the event was deemed so unpleasant that the moderator allowed an additional, last last question so as not to end on such an unseemly note. Who was that rude guy, anyway? Surely not someone from GCG – um, maybe…