Saturday April 21, 2007

I flew up to the Santa Clara campus Monday - Friday to meet my fellow Glassfish peers, as well as some in management and the field (sales). It was a whirlwind of a time as I spent 95% of my time in meetings, with the remaing 5% scheduling more meetings via email. These meetings were both necessary and productive, so don't get me wrong. I learned a heck of a lot in a short period of time and met a lot of new faces. Email is efficient and all, but relationships are stronger and build more quickly with some face-to-face time.

What impressed me the most during the visit was not a "can do" attitude but a "will do" attitude exuded by the folks I met. Seriously.  While everyone has their formal responsibilities, many accept informal responsibilities when things just need to get done. There is quite a bit of passion behind Glassfish at Sun, and it shows. Geez, it is infectious. It's one of the reasons I took on the role of Glassfish Product Manager. Yikes! That reminds me, time to get new business cards. "Field Geek" doesn't cut it anymore.

All metrics I see show Glassfish is moving in the right direction. Vibrant and growing community. 3 Million downloads a year.  Growing distribution channel.  It's simply hard to not take a look at Glassfish nowadays. Free for development and deployment. Improved performance.  Dynamic Clustering. Stay current with the Glassfish Update Center, just like you stay current with NetBeans via the Netbeans Update Center today. I can't leave out that Glassfish runs well in Solaris Zones (this is the Clingan Zone after all). You'll have the opportunity to hear more about Glassfish at JavaOne. If you get a chance, stop by the Glassfish booth  and say hi. I'll be spending part of my time doing booth duty.

If you would like hook up at JavaOne, drop me a note.