Eric Lundquist of eWeek characterizes Sun Microsystems as "a company that develops open-source software, uses it as an entrée into enterprises, and then sells hardware and services into those enterprises," calling the company the "largest open-source-based IT infrastructure company in the world." His interview with Jonathan Schwartz and EVP for Software Rich Green examined Sun's approach to leveraging open source to develop enterprise market share.

Schwartz made an important distinction between institutional CIOs and the developer community, startups and emerging nations. The concern of the former group is whether indemnification and enterprise support will be available; the latter are more interested in Sun's being the only productive company that brings an open source presence to the marketplace.

The approach at Sun that interests the heavy hitters, Schwartz explained, is to adopt the innovative products from Sun such as MySQL, OpenSolaris and Java, that enable businesses to run more efficiently.

While many companies are worried about the slowing economy, Schwartz continued, for Sun it's no problem. What could be better than free downloads of software to a company concerned about the bottom line, he suggested, then related an anecdote about a CIO who characterized his shop as "proprietary" only to have one of his own staff reveal that MySQL is the company's first choice of database solutions. The company is now negotiating a license and looking forward to the prospect of saving millions, he said.

Rich Green chimed in to say that, at a recent Sun Tech Day in Russia, over 90 percent of the audience admitted to being MySQL users, likening the adoption of MySQL to the earlier growth experience with Linux or Windows.

Green also responded to a question on the development of cloud computing, saying that Sun's position with a solution such as NetBeans puts the company in a unique position to provide developers with a cloud computing platform, and to do it more readily than either Google or Amazon can presently do. MySQL plays a role in this area as well, Green continued, in hosted MySQL services.

Green went on to explain the evolution of Sun's open source vs. proprietary product mix, saying that the object with the platforms from both MySQL and Sun is to involve and attract developers from start to deployment without involving their companies in contractual situations with Sun. Still, when it comes to such issues as optimization, configuration management, performance capabilities, Green said, there is a role for proprietary solutions, which address particular niches in the overall marketplace. This is where Sun's subscription plans enter the picture, he added.

With every day, Green maintained, experience is showing that companies who start off with open-source solutions do not, in fact, once successful, shift to proprietary applications. As long as an open-source platform is suitable for scalable deployment, he contended, it will more than do in the long run.

If anyone is looking for evidence of the success of open-source, scalable platforms, one has only to consider the experience of Facebook and Google with MySQL, Green noted. Very much to the advantage of MySQL users, Schwartz interjected, is what he termed the "soft compliance" requirements that are part of MySQL but generally not part of expensive proprietary databases.

And, Schwartz added, it is very much to Sun's advantage to have its open-source offerings online and available across the world. If the software is free, the hardware still is not, he pointed out, which is where Sun continues to capitalize on the leveraging potential of open source.

Looking to the question of long-term growth and Sun's return to profitability, Schwartz pointed out that Sun sees greater potential for improving its bottom line outside the U.S. market than within it, if for no other reason than the population figures suggest it as an ultimate reality. Further, he added, there is still too much residual reliance on proprietary solutions in the U.S.

Schwartz summed things up by saying. "...you just don't dump [free] code over the wall.... What you do is you prove to the community that you're committed to its evolution and its investment, and that's what we're doing today with our people." [...read more...]

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