JavaFX as Rich Internet Application Platform

JavaOne wrapped up on Friday. We hosted individuals from across the globe, and from every industry: consumer electronics and gaming, to enterprise IT, space exploration, factory automation, the automotive industry, academia - like the network itself, Java delivers something for nearly everyone, everywhere.

This year's biggest announcements centered around Java's role in the future of rich internet applications (or RIA's). What's a rich internet application? It depends on your perspective - from mine, it's any network connected application that persists in front of a user, typically outside a browser, that can operate when disconnected from the network.

On the one hand, I'd claim Java's always been a RIA platform - before the world really wanted one. Early Java applets delivered interactivity, but at the expense of development complexity and, in the early days, performance - when a browser, and more recently Javascript, would suffice.

But browser based applications are hitting complexity and performance limits, and content owners are striving for higher levels of engagement (via high definition video, or advanced interactivity). Developers are demanding something new - the browser's a wonderfully accessible programming model, but it's a weak deployment model for rich/disconnected applications.

An unspoken driver of RIA is also business model evolution - many companies behind rich applications are seeking independence from browsers and search engines, whose default settings and corporate parents present a competitive threat. There's a growing appetite for locally installed applications that build rich, direct and permanent engagement with consumers. No one wants to pay a toll to meet their own customers.

With that in mind, as we looked to reinvent the Java platform, we heard a consistent set of requirements. And not just from coders, but from sports francishes seeking to directly engage their fans, media companies wanting to bypass browser defaults, to artists and businesses and device manufacturers - everyone's looking to uniquely engage consumers via the network. These audiences have nearly identitical requirements for a RIA platform - they want technology that:

• Reaches every internet consumer - on desktops, mobile, and new devices, too.
  
• Delivers high performance - and the ability to engage creative professsionals in the design process.
  
• Leverages existing skills and enterprise infrastructure.
  
• Is totally free, and open source.
  
• Provides content owners with control and ownership of their own data.
  

At JavaOne last week, we addressed every one of those issues - here's how:

First, RIA developers want to reach every consumer on earth, and on every device.

Why? Because the market is in front of consumers - no matter what screen they may be using. Desktop, mobile phone, personal navigation, digital book - you name it. The market's in front of all the screens in your life, not just a PC.

That said, on PC's alone, Java's popularity has grown in the last few years, as measured by runtime downloads - we routinely download 40 to 50 million new Java runtimes a month, and update more than a billion every year. The adoption of the Java platform exceeds the adoption of Microsoft's Windows itself - Sun's Java runtime environment (JRE) is preloaded on nearly every Windows machine (from HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc.), but also runs on Apple's Macintosh, Ubuntu, Fedora, SuSe, Solaris and OpenSolaris desktops. In addition, a JRE is present on billions - yes, billions - of wireless and mobile devices, from automobile dashboards and navigation devices, to Amazon's Kindle (did you know Amazon's Kindle is a Java platform?).

Which is to say, the Java platform reaches more people than any other software technology the world has ever seen.

Second, RIA developers want performance, functionality AND simplicity.

Why? Because content owners and application developers want to engage consumers - and want to engage artists and creative professionals in the workflow.

Java's history with simplicity isn't perfect - which is why our teams have rewritten the applet model, and focused so intently on making the new consumer Java runtime environment (download a beta version here) exceptionally fast to load within a web page, exceptionally performant for complex interactivity, and trivially accessible to consumers. We've also simplified Java with a scripting language, JavaFX script, that enables creative professionals to engage with coders to create immersive experiences, while embracing the creative tool chain (from interaction design to pixel manipulation) used by the worlds designers and digital artists.

And I'm really pleased we've solved the desktop installation problem, by making JavaFX applets separable from a web page with a simple drag and drop (click the image above to watch this demonstrated). Developers can now bypass the browser to trivially install apps on desktops - once the applet's dropped on the desktop, content owners have a direct relationship with their consumers.

You might have also seen that we're adding full high quality audio and video codecs to Java on every platform on which it runs - resolving another gap for RIA developers, support for time-based media (click here for a demo of high performance video).

Third, enterprises want to reuse their existing Java skills and assets in moving to RIA.

Nearly every enterprise employs programmers with Java skills - it's still the number one internet language taught across the world, and found pervasively in global business infrastructure. As businesses move to engage their customers via RIA platforms, reusing existing skills, and connecting RIA's to existing systems, gives the Java community a unique ability to build from what exists - rather than attempt to replace it.

This familiarity also allows businesses and developer teams to focus on engaging with consumers - rather than irritating IT with new infrastructure requirements (JavaFX developers simply link to existing enterprise infrastructure, vs. requiring new systems for RIA apps).

Fourth, RIA developers want free and open platforms.

Why free? Because developers don't want to encumber their applications with royalty bearing dependencies, or use technologies that predefine where consumers might appear. You don't build developer communities around closed source, you build user communities - and this is an instance where developer selection and adoption will define the broadest RIA marketplace. JavaFX will, like all of Sun's software platforms, be made freely available as open source, and it'll be released via the GPL (v2) license.

And lest you think free and open software is the province of those with goatees and tattoos... we're seeing a rising tide of developing nations mandating free and open software in government and academic procurement. Why? To protect choice, and build indigenous opportunity - there's no reason to build dependencies upon proprietary software if you can avoid it.

Lastly, lets face it, the real value in Web 2.0 is the data - not the app. And that data is YOURS.

If you've been watching the social media space as carefully as we have, you understand the value of instrumentation and intentionality in building a business on the web. Knowing what users are doing with your product, whether it's a fantasy cricket league or a consumer banking application, enables more innovative business models, the delivery of higher value services, placement of more valuable ads - data allows for better decisions, and better value creation (and bluntly put, higher CPA).

But most rich internet applications are built, then deployed - into a fog. Developers who leave the confines of the browser either lose access to information about what their users are doing, or have to rely upon a technology provider that's inserting itself into their data stream. And some of those technology providers compete with content developers.

With a project code named Project Insight, we'll be instrumenting the Java platform to enable developers to harvest the data stream generated by their RIA content. JavaFX developers can focus on their business models - rather than enhancing someone else's.

_______________________

With all that said, what's the success of JavaFX worth to Sun?

By definition, it's worth more to Sun than the adoption of someone else's platform (known as "positive option value") - and the proprietary infrastructure used to serve it (don't forget, RIA's have rich internet back-ends (RIBs?). And in the RIA world, all the options are going to be priced at free, anyways - this isn't a contest to be won on price.

From where I sit, the platform likely to win will be the one that sets developers free - to pursue markets, opportunities and customer experiences as they define them, not as vendors define them. Now, setting developers free - that's where we can excel. It's in the DNA of everything we do.

For developers, learn more at JavaFX.com. And be sure to check out NetBeans - like Java itself, it's starting to rock the free world...

Posted on 10:59PM May 13, 2008 | Comments[13]

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OpenSolaris, Amazon, MySQL and Glassfish... Clouds Parting

We made some big announcements this week at our annual developer forums, CommunityOne and JavaOne. I thought I'd highlight a couple in particular.

We announced the first commercial release of OpenSolaris - targeting high speed developers and development teams (not consumers...). OpenSolaris focuses on developers wanting to be freed from proprietary software models, who see innovation and automation in operating systems as a source of competitive advantage.

If Solaris 10, OpenSolaris's older brother, is for IT departments prioritizing carrier grade stability over rapid innovation, OpenSolaris targets the exact opposite - developers, from high performance computing to social networking, that prioritize a constantly refreshing repository filled with community innovations (and ZFS-based automated rollback) over an unchanging qualification target. Go to OpenSolaris.com to download a free copy, or click on the OpenSolaris logo to have a bootable CD delivered to you (free of charge). Or if you want a simpler way of trying it out... just go to Amazon!

We also announced a partnership with Amazon, through which we've made OpenSolaris, alongside MySQL and Glassfish, available with commercial support on Amazon's elastic computing cloud. From where I sit, this is a profound change in the industry - the world's most popular database is now available, and commercially supported, as a cloud service. As is the fastest growing Java container, and a redefined OpenSolaris for the modern world.

The traditional software industry, first revolutionized by open source, next by software as a service, is now embarking on a third revolutionary change... infrastructure as a service.

Sure feels like the clouds are parting.

(And again, if you'd like a free copy of OpenSolaris sent to you on a bootable, "live" CD, just click on the OpenSolaris logo above.)

Posted on 10:32AM May 08, 2008 | Comments[28]

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Our Q3

We announced the results of our third fiscal quarter (Q3) on Thursday last week, and the results weren't what I, or any of us, wanted.

As you can read in the press release, we delivered $3.267 billion in revenue for Q3, roughly flat with a year ago. On that revenue, we delivered a GAAP loss of 4 cents (equal to the charge associated with the acquisition of MySQL, which closed within the quarter) - on that revenue, we generated around $320m in cash.

The low light of the quarter was revenue in the US - which declined year over year by nearly 10%, a big step down for a geography that typically contributes 40% of our total revenue. The highlight of the quarter was our India performance, up 30% year over year - and our chip multi-threading Niagara systems, which grew (billings) 110%.

We had growth in 12 of 16 geographies in which we sell, but a shortfall in the world's largest economy (and the largest in Sun's portfolio), is tough to make up elsewhere. So we showed no growth at the corporate level.

Despite a weak US economy, we still see growth and opportunity across the world. We are going to be making some changes as a result of the quarter, certainly, but not in our core vision or strategic direction - network infrastructure is being built out across the world, developers will continue to define its architecture and shape demand, and we will continue to position ourselves to drive and capture that market.

With that, I'll go through a few questions:

What happened in the US?
Late in the quarter, we saw a fairly aggressive slowdown - among smaller customers, and for larger systems (like enterprise servers and large tape libraries). As you recall, we left Q2 with a healthy backlog, lots of momentum, and feedback from customers that we were totally on the right track, so we were as surprised as anyone that deals started stalling in early March.

Why did big systems slow?
It's counterintuitive, but larger systems and purchase orders's are easier to slow down than smaller purchases. When you sell the systems and storage behind a big buildout, it's typically a long selling cycle, and a fairly long implementation process (systems aren't powered up the day they arrive). So holding off for a few weeks, either because you're spooked about the US mortgage crisis or because your CFO decided to put a pause on capital spending, is fairly straightforward.

And remember, our business is a portfolio - from high growth, low end blades and training services, to slower growth, high end enterprise systems an infrastructure software. There is no one system or product for all workloads, it's a portfolio.

So how are you going to adjust going forward?
We'll continue to diversify our business - geographically, and with the introduction of our Open Storage initiatives this past week and acquisitions like MySQL and Vaau, we'll continue moving into adjacent markets.

We also announced a restructuring plan, through which we'll be making targeted reductions in operating expenses. The net result will be the elimination of up to 2,500 jobs.

To be clear - we are taking assertive, and prudent steps to focus on growth opportunities, and to pull our cost structure in line with our business model. As we've done in years past, we're doing both - making choices to invest and disinvest.

Evolving companies are never done making choices.

Where did you grow in the quarter?
In 12 of the 16 geographies we serve - including India (up 30%), Brazil (up 20%), up in China, Russia, the Middle East, Canada, to name a few places. In general, the world continues to look to technology as a source of growth, automation and efficiency. Even our Wall Street business was up this past quarter.

On the product front, our focus on energy efficiency continues to pay off, with Niagara systems grew (billings) 110% year over year, and our newest (AMD, Intel and SPARC) blade systems growing at an even higher clip. The MySQL team delivered a great growth quarter, and Service revenues were up 3% (a major portion of which are software related, of course). Disk storage billings were up 6%.

Deferred product revenues were again up nicely, more than 25% - these deferred revenues tend to be for higher end systems and more complex configurations, with gross margins above the corporate average. Deferred Services were down, attributable to the ERP transition I mentioned earlier (we expect to recover that in Q4).

What didn't go well?
Enterprise systems, which were great growers in Q1 and Q2 (20% and 8% growth, respectively), were down in the quarter - and not specifically attributable to competition. We saw exceptional performance on our APL systems built with Fujitsu, and a strengthening partnership. Tape libraries were also down, although media sales were strong.

Given the size of both these line items, our higher volume lower end businesses were not yet at a sufficient scale to eclipse the slowdown on the lower volume, high end systems.

Why don't you just stop giving your software away?

Because we prioritize developer adoption. Let me give an example.

Last week, we saw a very high profile media company raise a considerable sum of money. They had not otherwise been on our radar. I sent a note to the head of our global sales team, given the fundraising had cited a growing infrastructure buildout, and asked if we'd made contact.

He said no, but we were immediately reaching out - and it turns out they're completely built around MySQL.

So before we arrived, before we were engaged, and before they began building out a large infrastructure, the MySQL team had scored a design win - ahead of the proprietary competition. What should we have charged them beforehand? No matter what it was, they wouldn't have used the product - startups and developers don't pay for software. But here's a diffrent question: what would we have paid them to select MySQL over the proprietary alternatives before embarking on a massive expansion?

Right question. We didn't pay them, the MySQL team earned their adoption.

Will they buy a license now? Maybe not, but we'll be well positioned if and when they, like Facebook or Nokia or the New York Times, do. And in the interim, it costs us nothing for the reference. I was with a bunch of startups at our StartupCamp this morning, and asked how many folks in the audience *didn't* use free software... no hands were raised. Why are we focused on startups? Because we're focused on all developers, in big companies and small.

How do you feel about the competition?
Just fine, we looked at the deals slowing in the US, competition wasn't our big issue - it's not that someone else was getting the purchase order, it's that no PO was being issued in the quarter. We're more exposed to the US markets, and potentially more exposed to discretionary purchases (although I don't really believe that servers are more discretionary than storage - they're converging). Avnet, one of our big distributors, had a similar experience in the US.

Why didn't you pre-announce the quarter?
We wanted to be sure, when we made our announcements, to have finalized our numbers and our plan to adjust our cost structure going forward. Given we're in the midst of an ERP transition, we were still finalizing work late into April. Secondarily, we needed to review our FY 2009 restructuring plan with the board before going public. We announced as soon as we'd met, reviewed and approved the plan.

How did you lose money compared to a year ago profit?
Well, without dipping into GAAP accounting, we generated a lot of cash in the quarter (more than $320m), and getting from cash to GAAP income involves a fair number of line items associated with acquisition accounting, amortization of goodwill, tax provisions, stock option expensing - all of which, on a non-cash basis, added up to 22 cents worth of charges.

Are you repurchasing your own shares?
We don't comment on buyback plans, but we'll report any potential purchases at the end of the quarter.

When will the US recover? Will the malaise spread overseas?
We build network innovation at Sun, we don't predict the global economy.

And with that, you've hopefully got a clearer sense of what we saw, and what we see. So I'll end on a particuarly vexing question,

"Why does Sun's CEO waste time writing that blog?"
Because I believe in providing clarity surrounding our strategy and operations - not just once a year in the Annual Report. I believe clarity behind our direction is useful for our shareholders, customers, partners and employees.

In good times, and in challenging ones.

________________

Safe Harbor Statement

Jonathan's blog contains forward-looking statements regarding the future results and performance of Sun including statements with respect to the effects of our restructuring plan, and expectations for deferred revenue. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those predicted in any such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements include: risks associated with developing, designing, manufacturing and distributing new products; lack of success in technological advancements; pricing pressures; lack of customer acceptance of new products; the possibility of errors or defects in new products; competition; adverse business conditions; failure to retain key employees; the cancellation or delay of projects; our reliance on single-source suppliers; risks associated with our ability to purchase a sufficient amount of components to meet demand; inventory risks; and delays in product development or customer acceptance and implementation of new products and technologies. Please also refer to Sun's periodic reports that are filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended September 30, 2007 and December 30, 2007. Sun assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update these forward-looking statements.

Posted on 03:47PM May 04, 2008 | Comments[68]

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Freedom's Choice

Today is the opening day of the MySQL User Conference - so I thought I'd describe a recent customer interaction related to the acquisition.

A few weeks ago, I was visiting the Chief Information Officer of a large commercial institution. He had with him the company's Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Security Officer (known as the "see-so"), and a series of lieutenants from various parts of their (large) development organization.

The Sun team had spent the day reviewing our progress together, and was finishing up with a product roadmap presentation. From what I sensed, it'd been a good day, so when I arrived, it was mostly to say thanks for the business, and ensure everyone had my contact info in the event I could help out going forward.

We had just closed the acquisition of MySQL, so before I wrapped up, I asked, "And would you like a quick update on the newest addition to our family, MySQL?"

The CIO responded categorically with "we don't run MySQL, we run [name withheld to protect the proprietary]." The CISO said, "We can't just let developers download software off the net, you know, we've got regulation and security to worry about." The CTO smiled. Everyone else appeared to be sitting on their hands. I was going to leave it at that. Thanks for the business.

Until a (diplomatically) assertive Sun sales rep piped up, "Um... no, I connected with a buddy of mine over at MySQL, and had him check - you've downloaded MySQL more than 1,300 times in the last twelve months."

After a profoundly awkward silence, one of the individuals from their internal development team piped up, "Actually, everybody uses it. Why bother hassling with license agreements when MySQL's got you covered. We're stoked you bought them."

Awkward silences aside, we've now got a very productive engagment with the customer around delivering commercial support on a global basis to what's turned out to be the most popular database inside their development shop. They're finding more and more applications for MySQL, and more ways to save significant time and money in moving toward the future.

And that experience - of a CIO not knowing how ubiquitous and valuable free software has become to their organization - isn't atypical. In fact, it's the norm, and a divide we're gently trying to bridge.

Opportunity's everywhere.

So is free and open software.

They might even travel in pairs.

Posted on 01:14PM Apr 14, 2008 | Comments[42]

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Which is the Real Poisson D'Avril?

If you'd like the backstory on the April Fool's video making its way around Sun (below)... it goes like this.

My normally trustworthy administrator let me know I had a lunch appointment with my normally trustworthy friend, Ted. So I went to a normally trustworthy restaurant, where the normally trustworthy host walked me to my table - and past a series of video cameras I foolishly didn't notice. Ted lets me know he's managed to connect with Dan, a normally trustworthy colleague, who's put him in touch with a technical expert I might be interested in meeting.

Ted lets me know the guest is flying up from Los Angeles. And that he's been in an accident that might impair his ability to speak. Pay special attention at minute five, marking the first time I've seen anyone make a chicken out of a dinner napkin.

Let me be the first to point out that the video shown was highly edited. The good (and, notwithstanding this prank, normally trustworthy) people who edited the footage exercised appropriate restraint for a global audience unaccustomed to diluvian drooling. How uncomfortable was it at the table? Having watched the unedited version with a Sun colleague before it was posted externally, she remarked, "Look how well your Mother raised you, you didn't even stare."

On a far more civil note, Sun's headquarters were also attacked by a herd of squeaky dolphins yesterday, swimming in formation from right to left... rumor has it they were on their way to meet with a representative of their community who now leads our database business.

Oh, and Bill Macgowan is still at Sun.

I hold him personally responsible for my designation as the real poisson d'avril (dolphins aren't fish, after all, they're mammals), and I'll forever view him with a lingering suspicion... but he's still here.

Posted on 02:44PM Apr 02, 2008 | Comments[19]

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Give it Back.

As you know, Sun's open source software and microprocessor strategy has been, at times controversial. We've filled trade journals and chat rooms with all kinds of dialog and the occasional crackpot conspiracy theory.

As many have rightly assumed from the outset, that controversy was, in fact, not a byproduct of the strategy - it was the strategy: if you're talking about Sun, you're not talking about the other guy. And then you'll buy a datacenter.

But now that we've firmly established our reputation for open source leadership, I'm very worried there's no more controversy to be had. There's too much trust in the system, and too much clarity around our strategic intent. So it's getting tougher and tougher to kick up a storm - and we can't very well spend a billion dollars or change our ticker symbol every time we want to generate a headline. Now can we?

So today I'd like to unfurl the second chapter of our strategy.

We want you to give it all back. You couldn't possibly believe we'd let you keep it, did you?

We specifically request that all free software originally distributed by Sun Microsystems, related to software or microprocessors, including but not limited to source files, binaries, derivatives, extensions, applications, patents, patent applications, copyrights, ideas, thoughts, and derivative thoughts, along with any and all mirrors thereof, be returned immediately.

In addition, (we know this is the risky part, but we need to get the privacy advocates twittering, too), we demand all data processed, stored or created by such intellectual property, up to and including all data held within file systems, databases or open source productivity applications be returned, as well. Up to and including the book report your kid just typed on OpenOffice.

We'd like to request this all be returned within thirty days.

Thank you for your understanding.

______________________________

And although it pains me to say this, we do live in a litigious society, so: YES, this is an April Fool's joke, as defined by relevant sections of the United States Securities Act of 1933.

Posted on 12:35PM Apr 01, 2008 | Comments[36]

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Do I Still Have a Job?

This is Bill Macgowan.

Bill is Sun's Chief Human Resources Officer.

Which means he works with me to build and cultivate talent at Sun.

He's bright, well spoken, and usually exercises good judgement.

Usually.

But today, he perpetrated a prank. On me. An April Fool's Day prank.

Executed early enough to turn into a video for the enjoyment of Sun's employees on Tuesday (April Fool's Day). And if I have the courage to publicly display my gullibility, it'll be here, on this blog, in front of a global audience.

The prank, like any good Silicon Valley practical joke, involved a venture capitalist, a drooling visitor, a bib and lamb chops.

Owing to the graciousness with which my parents raised me, I suffered through the prank. Without staring. Focused on the business at hand.

Having no idea it was a prank.

Until all the camera men appeared. At which point I picked up on the notion something wasn't quite right. I had been spoofed.

Upon my humbling return from lunch, Bill caught me in the hallway. He asked, with his ill-gotten video in hand, "so do I still have a job?"

And I have until Tuesday to think up a creative response.

Remember, my office mate is the CFO, and the General Counsel writes a blog. Surely there's an opportunity for clever repartee.

Surely :)

Posted on 07:00PM Mar 28, 2008 | Comments[31]

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OpenSolaris, Security and the NSA (National Security Agency)

We made a very significant announcement last week, of a collaboration with one of the most (if not the most) security sensitive institutions on earth, the United States government's National Security Agency. They've joined the burgeoning OpenSolaris community, to collaborate with Sun and other community members on the future of ultra-secure operating systems.

To put this in context, community engagement has always been one of the most important ways Sun innovates in the marketplace - we partner with those that have extreme demands (whether it's the world's largest supercomputing facility, or the world's most paranoid security professionals (no offense intended), or the world's largest archival storage facilities), and then we leverage that expertise to create products for the mass market. We let extreme customers teach us what the rest of the world will ultimately experience.

Nine times out of ten, what extreme customers experience is a great leading indicator for the industry as a whole.

Historically, this type of collaboration used to involve reams and reams of legal documents describing all kinds of confidentiality restrictions, intellectual property exchanges, or cumbersome institutional processes. But it got really simple when we embraced the open source community - now our most fruitful collaborations boil down to this: "come join the community." And that's exactly what we're announcing with the National Security Agency, they've joined the OpenSolaris community.

And rather than walk through the details of our collaboration, I figured I'd have Bill Vass, the president of Sun's Federal Systems Group do all the heavy lifting - so I sent him a bunch of questions, and thought I'd post the resulting Q&A. His responses are below.

So Bill, what did we announce?
That we've formalized a relationship with the United States National Security Agency (NSA) to incorporate their security research into an OpenSolaris community project called Flexible Mandatory Access Control (FMAC). The press release for the project is available here.

What's Flexible Mandatory Access Control (FMAC)?
First, Mandatory Access Control (MAC) is a mechanism generally implemented in the operating system that provides unbypassable restrictions over system privileges. MAC's exists so that not just anyone, for example, can look at your passport file without permission, or turn off a machine in mission critical deployment. MAC is all about managing privileges.

But when it comes to MAC, there isn't one size that fits all, so that's where the flexible part comes in. An installation's security goals can vary based upon the value of its information assets or systems, and the methods used to protect them. By allowing flexibility, the security policy can be described to meet the actual needs for access control based upon an extensible enforcement model.

Thus, Flexible Mandatory Access Controls - you can read more about FMAC here. FMAC isn't just a government issue, of course, it's just as much an issue for a social networking site, or a bank - everyone wants simplified, easy to use access controls, consumers and corporations, too.

Who's involved in the project?
Sun and the NSA are jointly working in the OpenSolaris community, and we're inviting broad participation - one of the great benefits of being an open source company is that Sun can innovate out in the open, within a very large community. For security technologies in particular, transparency of development is absolutely vital, even for the NSA - you can't sneak trojan horses into open source platforms. So open source allows high security customers to trust vendors *and* verify.

This collaboration is a great endorsement for the integrity of the OpenSolaris community among government users focused on technical and commercial progress.

So why did the NSA select Sun?
Security and performance are really the core of our relationship with governments around the world. We've been focused on security since our inception, and we've got more than 20 years experience in the trusted operating system business (remember, Trusted Solaris spawned from collaboration with the US government about a decade ago).

Our security technologies touch everything from the SIM card in your cell phone, to the identity management platforms at the heart of some of the world's largest web services - and Solaris has long been recognized as the most secure open source OS in deployment, from battlefields to command and control systems. So this seemed like a natural partnership to us.

You mentioned something about integrating NSA security research?
Yes, we are investigating how the NSA research on Flux Advanced Security Kernel (FLASK) architecture and type enforcement (TE) policy can be combined with our Solaris Trusted Extensions technology. They're potentially complementary, and we think we can leverage that in the delivery of a fully open source application stack - from MySQL through Glassfish/Java, and up to the user.

The Flask architecture separates policy enforcement from the policy itself. Policies can be modified without needing to change the enforcement "hooks" in the operating environment, which makes life a lot easier for security administrators, and makes the systems more flexible and useful.

Type Enforcement policy allows for very fine-grained access control that can be used to to protect against malicious software.

Why are we embarking on this work with the NSA?
We've received requests for a Flask/TE based implementation in Solaris from a number of government customers. And now that we have Solaris Trusted Extensions out the door, it's a great time to start looking toward the future. We already have a great Multilevel Security (MLS) infrastructure with Solaris Trusted Extensions but the value of the combined technologies may provide a single extensible platform that can be used to protect sensitive government information, along with mainstream enterprises, and ultimately, even consumer electronics like your phone or digital video recorder.

What audience does FMAC address?
Like I said above, MAC based systems are used primarily by governments. Our goal moving forward is to make technologies such as FMAC more accessible to commercial markets, from startups to big enterprises. Governments tend to be good leading indicators for broader commercial security concerns.

High security used to be esoteric, now it's essential - for the US government, for international governments, and most importantly, for users.

Is this limited to the US?
Nope. It's an OpenSolaris project and we want the global community to help drive it forward. If others want to collaborate, just create an account on opensolaris.org and join in.

If someone wants to get a hold of your team to talk about FMAC in the open source community, what should they do?
Just send me an email, bill.vass@sun.com. We've got lots of folks in Washington, DC, as well as contacts around the world, who can help organizations understand security and open source, and understand how to join the community to collaborate around security innovation. Now's the time, join in!

Thanks, Bill. Much appreciated.
You're very welcome. ADDITION: if any of your readers are local to Silicon Valley, and would like to hear Sun's lead John Weeks discuss Flask/TE and the OpenSolaris collaboration project, you might stop in on us in at Sun's Santa Clara campus at 7:30p. If not, I'll post a video of the session so interested parties can share their insights.

Posted on 09:35AM Mar 25, 2008 | Comments[21]

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The World's Largest Supercomputing Cloud

I had no idea the Hubble telescope could see only 12 billion years into the past.

Frankly, I'd never really thought about telescopes looking into the past until Dr. Michael Norman, a researcher from UCSD gave me a basic education in astronomy - and explained the Hubble looks at celestial bodies whose light is just now reaching us. But it can "only" see 12 billion years into the past - and that was a veil he'd like to pierce. (I asked him what he did for a living, he said, "I simulate the universe." Trump that job description.)

The question he was interested in answering was, "what about the prior 1.7 billion years?" The universe is roughly 13.7 billion years old, and given the Hubble's limits, he was using the world's largest supercomputer, the Ranger platform at the University of Texas at Austin's TACC (Texas Advanced Computer Center) to simulate the prior 1.7 billion years. (He later confided he was most interested in the prior 1.5 billion years, the first 200-300 million were characterized by lots of hydrogen fog, yet to clump into the wells that enable stars to be born.)

I was asked to give a keynote to celebrate Ranger's opening, and this was only one example of the flood of basic research and science that will now be performed on the world's largest open computing platform. Open? The facility was funded by the National Science Foundation, and is committed to providing large scale supercomputing as a service to any researcher or scientist within the US (submit proposals here). Ranger is built entirely on Sun - to dip into geekspeak for a moment, here are the stats:

• In around 6,000 square feet datacenter space, consuming less than 3 Megawatts...
• More than 4000 quad core Sun/Opteron blades, 120+ Tb of DRAM, running CentOS
• Delivering more than 500 teraflops computing capacity
• Jobs scheduled by Sun's Grid Engine
• Interconnected by two, 100 terabit non-blocking Magnum switches (horns optional)
• Data managed by the Lustre file system, on Thumpers
• More than 2 petabytes of storage
• Managed by our hierarchical data management SAM-FS product, archived to Sun tape platforms
• With overall systems managed and monitored by xVM OpsCenter (the world's largest installation).

An enormous amount of engineering went into the construction of the facility and the technology behind it, which Sun can now replicate across the world in smaller (and larger, of course) installations (public and commercial). Beyond governments and research facilities, Industries across the planet are turning to high performance computing for business advantage, not simply scientific endeavor. This system consumes a fraction of the power budget required just a few years ago - making it among the greenest supercomputing facilities on earth, too.

To give you a sense of how significant Ranger actually is, check out this chart (click for live version):

Ranger's capacity exceeds that of all other National Science Foundation granted supercomputing facilities combined. When they say big in Texas, they mean big.

As the director of Cyberinfrastructure at the NSF pointed out during his congratulatory speech, computational simulation is now considered a legitimate field of scientific exploration. From drug discovery to climate modeling, fluid dynamics to simulating the universe, epidemiology to materials science - a facility of this size will revolutionize science, in the US and across the world. To date, there are already more than 500 research projects using Ranger - it's already changing the world. And because it's part of the NSF Teragrid, output from the studies will be shared throughout the world. Open means open. Jay Boisseau, TACC's director, let me know they're dangerously close to receiving more applications for time on Ranger (they have about 500 million cpu hours to allocate each year, or 125m/quarter) than they have available. For folks like Jay and Dr.Norman, increasing capacity increases appetite - unlike much of enterprise computing, where surpluses are often consolidated away (the heart of Greg's redshift theory).

How did Ranger come together? It resulted from a commitment to basic science from the National Science Foundation, a passionate set of people at the University of Texas, inspired by a driven technical leader in Jay, commitments from an exceptional (truly exceptional) team of TACC, Sun and AMD employees, with all three groups in a mad scramble to stand up the facility in record time - as the world's largest open supercomputing facility. The world's largest, by a factor of 4.

Ranger will transform academia, industry and ultimately society. Why do I believe that?

As I pointed out during my speech, there was a point at which the Niagara Falls power plant in the United States supplied fully 30% of America's electrical requirements. The engineering and basic science that went into that work parallels the work required to build Ranger. It was truly fundamental research.

Did electricity transform society? Unquestionably. Will knowing what happened in the first 1.7 billion years of the universe transform our lives? We don't know yet. That's what Dr. Norman is figuring out. A question Sun, AMD and the University of Texas researcher will now be able to help him answer. With a platform Sun will now be making generally available to the commercial market. (I was going to write something like "parting the clouds of cloud computing," but even I winced when I read that.)

__________________

(For those interested, this is a great summary of Dr. Norman's approach to computational astrophysics - notably, like pretty much all the work I'm seeing in high performance computing across the world...

...predicated upon free and open source software.)

Posted on 04:00AM Mar 03, 2008 | Comments[41]

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MySQL is Officially a Part of Sun

Today, Sun announced we've closed the acquisition of MySQL - MySQL is now officially a part of Sun! From a dinner meeting back in late November, through some introspection from MySQL's CEO, to a closing today in late February - everyone involved showed a great sense of pace, urgency and excitement. And now, it's off to the races!

Since the announcement, I've seen and heard near universal support for the relationship - most everyone wants to know where we're headed, so here's a quick overview of our initial plans.

Starting today, we're rolling out global programs to raise awareness and adoption of MySQL among more established enterprises - you'll see ads like this (to the right) targeting institutions and independent software/service vendors (ISV's) looking to standardize on open source architectures. As the ad highlights, we're introducing global, enterprise support programs for MySQL - offering the largest institutions on earth a new option in mission critical deployment. We are going all out to sign up new customers, extending MySQL's reach.

The overall message is simple: we're bringing our largest customers the innovation and performance the world's most important on-line companies are already experiencing - giving them the option of putting MySQL into global, mission critical deployment.

Internally, the more than 10,000 people that make up the Sun engineering community - of which the MySQL team is now a core part - have begun to engage across a dizzying array of touchpoints. From diagnostics and technical integration, to performance engineering, hardware and software optimization and, leveraging our large scale benchmarking facilities, going after a few more world records. A breadth of projects are underway to enhance the value MySQL can deliver in a diversity of settings - and we'll work hard to ensure MySQL flies like a dolphin on Linux, Windows and Solaris, and on systems built by Dell, IBM, HP, Intel, AMD, Sun, Fujitsu (ie, everyone).

As importantly, our market development teams are also spooling up - to assist ISV's who rely upon MySQL (along with those that are newly interested in doing so) with the engineering, marketing and sales support they require. Functionality aside, what matters most to ISV's is ready access to markets and customers - what's known as "go to market" partnering with ISV's has always been a long suit for Sun. So over the next few months, you'll start to see a parade of new wins - which we'll be winning with ISV's, and with partners, arm in arm, across the world.

The big MySQL user conference is coming up, too - to which I'd like to invite all interested in the future of MySQL (partners, ISV's, customers, developers, all). You can get more information here.

Now, although the feedback has been hugely positive, across the globe, there have been a couple snarky comments from a cynic here and there, whose concerns I thought I'd put to rest right here, once and for all.

There are still folks in the world who don't believe there's an economic model behind open source - they thus believe $1 billion is an outlandish price to pay for MySQL. The most extreme among them see Linux, OpenSolaris or companies like SugarCRM as nothing more than playgrounds for hobbyists.

Most of the IT world knows quite the opposite.

Companies that freely distribute their products, rather than limit access via pricing or proprietary licensing, are simply prioritizing adoption over immediate revenue - a good example of this is Microsoft's recent attempt to revive adoption of their developer tools in universities by lowering some prices to free.

There is a clear economic model behind open source, eloquently summarized by Marten Mickos, MySQL's CEO: the spectrum describing the marketplace spans those with more time than money, who form the user and developer communities around free software; and those with more money than time, who purchase commercial support contracts typically in more mature enterprises. To win in the long run, you have to win on both sides of the spectrum - with the same product. Crippling products, or sneaky licensing exceptions don't work - freedom does.

In terms of the price we paid for MySQL (roughly $800m in cash, $200m in assumed options), we thought about it this way - first, the standalone business, unenhanced by Sun, was on a ramp to an IPO. The IPO would've been priced, by our calculations, at near the purchase price we paid. Remember, we're buying a financial asset as well as a strategic one. We paid a control premium to convince their board to go with Sun, obviously. But then we figured we could amplify their success as a software company by aligning with Sun's 17,000+ person global sales/service/support/channel organization - we can together reach a far broader customer set than MySQL could on their own, which generates upside for Sun. And, although a small (but growing) percentage of their downloads convert to purchase orders, 100% of those downloads require a hardware purchase - for many, a server and storage device (for just as many, a laptop). We'd like to believe we can earn some of that business with solutions optimized for MySQL - even if the end customer isn't (yet) paying for software.

Finally, remember that database licenses often make up a considerable part of any company's budget - to the extent we can introduce new options for those customers (even via the appearance of a well designed coffee mug on the procurement agent's desk), we can free up budgets for new investments. Which drives more customers to seek out Sun - vendors that save money with better performance are well liked.

Net/net, we believe we paid a fair price (and all that said, remember, we're not a monopsony).

Now, another concern forwarded to me was the conspiracy theory that wondered... as soon as a big company owns MySQL, surely they'll adopt a nefarious proprietary license that levies extortionate rents for the simple act of storing and retrieving data?

Anyone who thinks that hasn't be following Sun of late.

One reason the integration of Sun and MySQL has gone so smoothly is our development and business models are nearly identical - we both invest in very high quality free software and the cultivation of large communities, then turn our efforts to monetize at the point of value for companies that want commercial support. We're peas in a pod.

And to prove the point - I would like to formally invite you to try MySQL, with a free download (just click the logo). While you're at it, why not give Glassfish and NetBeans a swim around the tank, too... Web developers never had it so good...

It's truly a great day for free software - and for the growing majority of companies across the globe that look to open solutions for choice, value and innovation.

I hope to see many of you at the MySQL Conference! I'm quite confident it's going to be an interesting event for everyone.

Posted on 07:50AM Feb 26, 2008 | Comments[54]

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What I Said at our Analyst Conference...

Last week, we held a conference for leading financial and industry analysts from around the world. My keynote presentation is below - broken into two parts for ease of viewing. One analyst remarked, "but this is pretty much what you said last year."

I responded with, "That's the point."

If you'd like more specifics on our financial performance (directly from Mike Lehman, our CFO), views from the marketplace (from Don Grantham, our Global Sales and Services) or specific product roadmaps (from the heads of our Systems or Software businesses), just click here...)

Posted on 11:53PM Feb 13, 2008 | Comments[24]

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Communities, Then Customers (Forrester on OpenSolaris)

As you're probably aware, we've been working very hard to rebuild the community, and the momentum, around all our software assets at Sun, most notably the Solaris operating system.

Why notably Solaris? As a systems company, the operating system (OS) is among the most important lenses through which our microelectronics, software, systems and service innovations are seen by the marketplace - if the lens is cloudy, you can't see much. As is the case with few other products, our overall market is defined by how big a community of skills, applications and developers we can build around Solaris (and its younger sibling, OpenSolaris) - and only then, by how many customers we can generate.

The work to rebuild that developer community was begun in earnest in January of 2005 - the date on which we made the first source code to Solaris available under a free software license. But the investment in innovation (the main reason people care about source code, after all) began far earlier, with projects like ZFS and DTrace beginning about seven (yes, seven) years ago. Other enhancements were more recent - like our embrace of the Postgres community (who delivered a fantastic new 8.3 release into OpenSolaris today), the evolution of Glassfish (which has a similarly long history), and even the inclusion of CIFS (which allows Solaris to be a first class file server for Microsoft Windows machines).

The developer community surrounding Solaris - as opposed to the user community - is best measured by OpenSolaris. Like its brethren in the Linux community, OpenSolaris is always the most up to date release of Solaris innovations, and is used by those who not only tolerate changes to the underlying OS, but eagerly anticipate it in hopes of eeking out incremental performance, features or functions.

Which is why I was so thrilled to read a report from Forrester that showed great progress in Europe - for open source broadly, and for Solaris and OpenSolaris specifically. You can read the report here.

In it, executives in European Financial Services companies point to Solaris as one of the three most important OS's for their business - and the only modern/open source OS (the other two are proprietary). This bodes well for our capacity to grow, and the early return on what's been a long innovation cycle, not solely in features and performance, but in community, too. (I doubt OpenSolaris was even measurable last year.)

But what's really the best part about the report?

It represents data as of nearly a year ago. If two points make a trend...

To the teams involved - inside Sun, and in the community... thank you. Your work is making a measurable difference.

Posted on 05:20PM Feb 04, 2008 | Comments[24]

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Free Virtualization, and Sun's Q2 Results

Please read the luculent Safe Harbor Statement at the bottom of this page....

We released our official earnings on Thursday last week, after pre-announcing the news one week prior alongside the announcement of our intent to acquire MySQL.

Our second quarter financial announcement came down to this: we doubled our profitability compared to a year ago, with $260 million in net income on revenues of $3.6 billion, while generating $336 million in cash from operations. We also repurchased $750 million of our own shares within the quarter, and reaffirmed our guidance for the full year of low to mid single digit revenue growth, and at least 8% operating profit for Q4 (excluding any acquisition charges).

From a financial perspective, with the glass half empty, total revenues were up only slightly (just over 1% vs. a year ago). This was partly due to changes in how we do business with our resellers and channel partners – we'll be reporting revenue when there's a sale to an end user customer, not when we've fulfilled an order from a business partner that sells to end users. (This makes us more transparent, too.)

Those changes took a few percentage points of revenue growth off the top line, and were one reason for the disparity between our bookings growth of 7%+ (bookings are orders for delivery within the next six months) and our revenue (orders fulfilled/installed within the quarter). With the glass half full, this generated a very healthy “book to bill” ratio, which investors look to for insight into future performance. Our total deferred revenues (products and services) also ballooned considerably, growing 24% year over year, to almost $2.7 billion. A very healthy increase.

What were some of the strategic highlights within the quarter?

Topping the list was the interest in Sun xVM. xVM is our free, open source virtualization platform, which we unveiled at Oracle Open World, alongside our management platform, xVM Ops Center. xVM will virtualize Windows, Linux or Solaris, on either Dell, HP, IBM or Sun hardware. We've seen broad interest from across the world, especially from customers that want to avoid putting a proprietary virtualization technology at the base of large scale open source datacenters (“why go back?” one said to me). Interest in our virtualization story (from xVM to Solaris containers) expands to every industry, and nearly every customer – it's just about the number one item on the agenda.

Next on the list was signing a Solaris OEM deal with Dell, through which they've endorsed and will support Solaris across their server and blade platforms. This was a very big deal for us – an endorsement from the volume leader in PC's and commodity infrastructure matters to our customers. Michael joined me on stage, and politely invited me to join Dell's “Regeneration” (an offer I gladly accepted in exchange for a t-shirt). Dell joins IBM and Intel as Solaris OEM partners. Personally, I'd love to add Hewlett Packard to the list of partners our customers can rely upon for Solaris support.

We saw double digit growth in emerging economies, from India, China, Latin America, to portions of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. We saw booming growth in our UltraSPARC T2 Niagara platform, generating approximately $285 million in billings, 100% higher than a year ago. 100% growth! Why's it growing so fast? A focus on eco-efficiency, on outright raw performance, integrated (ie., free) virtualization and crypto support - we see opportunity emerging every day. With the acceptance of SPARC and Solaris 10 as open platforms driving new conversations and opportunity (with our existing, and new customers - if you'd like to try a Niagara 2 (officially, a T5120 or T5220) system for free, click here).

Our x64 business was relatively flat within the quarter – which was a low point, certainly. But we're just now introducing our new Intel offerings, and starting to build out our blade offerings. So I've got more confidence heading into the back half of the year, and with a bulked up product line that continues to expand and evolve.

We also saw growth on the very highest end systems we jointly build with Fujitsu. We're seeing those systems perform at or above our internal benchmark estimates, and we couldn't be happier with the strategic progress Sun and Fujitsu are making as partners. Speaking of partner relationships, we saw good growth in our Hitachi high end storage offerings, alongside growth in our core tape business. As predicted, we're seeing growing interest in tape as an archive platform among web companies that must preserve very large pools of data (user generated photographs and movies, eg.) for long periods of time. Where “large pools” are tens of petabytes, growing to hundreds). Alongside growth in our enterprise business, we also saw good growth from our Services business.

What's my view on the economy? Having spent my undergraduate years studying the dismal science, I can say with complete confidence, “no one knows with certainty.” What do I hear from customers? That they're increasingly turning to technology to drive efficiency, automation, and growth. And we're a central figure in that conversation, far more central than a year ago.

In addition, we just held an event with 150 or so of our business partners from across the world – evenly split across Europe, the Americas and the Asia Pacific region. And what did I hear from those partners? That's confidential, of course, but there's a reason we're all holding champagne glasses. We're hoping to make a habit of toasting success.

To the partners that joined us at the event - thank you for the partnership. We are committed to growing our opportunity, and the value of our relationships. There's a world of opportunity in front of us, and we're looking forward to capturing it together.

____________________________________________

Safe Harbor Statement
Jonathan's blog contains forward-looking statements regarding the future results and performance of Sun including statements with respect to Sun's guidance for revenue growth for FY08 and operating profit for Q408, Sun's strategy and business opportunities and expectations regarding our x64 business. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those predicted in any such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements include: risks associated with developing, designing, manufacturing and distributing new products; lack of success in technological advancements; pricing pressures; lack of customer acceptance of new products; the possibility of errors or defects in new products; competition; adverse business conditions; failure to retain key employees; the cancellation or delay of projects; our reliance on single-source suppliers; risks associated with our ability to purchase a sufficient amount of components to meet demand; inventory risks; and delays in product development or customer acceptance and implementation of new products and technologies. Please also refer to Sun's periodic reports that are filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2007. Sun assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update these forward-looking statements. If you've read this far, you need more outside interests.

Posted on 11:18PM Jan 29, 2008 | Comments[32]

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In a Vortex

In a vortex. That's the only way to describe the past thirty days, during which we closed out our second quarter, and put together the transaction to acquire MySQL. How'd it all start?

"That'll never happen, I've been trying for years." That's what I told Rich Green (EVP, Software at Sun) about six months ago in response to his assertion, "if there were one company I'd love to acquire, it'd be MySQL. They're an amazing company." Why'd I say it was impossible?

For nearly five years, I've been getting together for dinner with Marten Mickos, MySQL's CEO, catching up on the industry, chatting about trends and business models, and just as the dessert was about to be served... I'd say, "geez, we have so much in common, Marten, we see the world so similarly, what would you think about becoming a part of Sun?"

At which point Marten would say he was flattered and honored, pour some milk into his coffee, stir, and start talking about Finland.

"I still think it's worth trying," said Rich. So we did - Marten, Rich and I set up another dinner for early December. At which we went through the same great conversation, updating one another on what we saw in the market and industry, how much we had common, and just as dessert was showing up, I popped the question. And...

...smile, stir, we're talking about Finland again.

So we leave the restaurant, talk about scheduling another dinner six months from now, and I look at Rich with the "See what I mean?" look on my face.

But unlike prior meetings, the next morning, Marten called me back and said, "We've been doing some thinking. Are you still interested in talking about an acquisition?" Um, yes. Yes. Just like the past four years.

And that's where it all started.

Tenacity pays, and Rich joins the growing list of people who can pull an "I told you so" card. (For the record, I'm happily proven wrong, it keeps me on my toes.)

Other than "how did this deal come to pass?" I've heard a lot of questions over the past few days, and thought I'd write down a few answers.

First things first.

A billion dollars for a company that gives its products away for free?

Facebook gives its products away for free, too. They make money on ads, we make money on service, support and infrastructure. MySQL has a big business, growing very rapidly. Investing in the future has more value than buying the past - which is why the latter so often comes at a discount.

What happens to your commitment to PostgreSQL?

It grows. The day before we announced the acquisition, and within an hour of signing the deal, I put a call into Josh Berkus, who leads our work with Postgres inside of Sun. I wanted to be as clear as I could: this transaction increases our investment in open source, and in open source databases. And increases our commitment to Postgres - and the database industry broadly. The same goes for our work with Apache Derby, and our JavaDB.

Josh says it exactly right on his blog - Sun wants to be the leading provider of datacenters. Not just MySQL datacenters. Exactly.

Who are you going to buy next?

Now that's a great question, we'll tell you after we're done :)

More seriously, I do agree with those that say Sun's acquisition of MySQL proves the value of open source business models - and I'm hoping it fuels yet more investment from the venture community in truly open source innovation. There is a ton of value to be had, just ask MySQL's investors.

What happens to your relationship with Oracle?

Oracle's a very important Solaris ISV - and we have joint customers across the world that have relied upon the service and support Sun and Oracle provide in mission critical environments to run the world's banks, retailers, telcos, governments, etc. Absolutely nothing changes about that commitment as a result of this deal - just as nothing changes in our willingness and ability to support DB2, or Microsoft's SQL Server (which also happens to run quite well on our systems, btw). Customers want choice, and we maintain our commitment to offer it.

It's important to remember, our service organization focuses on our customers, not our products.

Will the integration be complex like StorageTek?

StorageTek was 7,000 employees, with complicated supply chains, logistics processes, real estate, factories, redundant systems (like any big company), different engineering models and processes built up over a 35 year history. Integration was, to be blunt, complicated.

MySQL is 400 employees, without offices (their employees work from home), without a supply chain, no factories or real estate, and they have an engineering model and business process just about identical to ours.

So no, the integration won't be complex. It'll be quite straightforward.

After the transaction closes, Marten Mickos will continue to lead MySQL, will report into our Software organization, and will join my Executive Management Group (the top officers at Sun).

And strategically, there are technical synergies everywhere we look, as well - from MySQL on ZFS and Lustre, to better integration with Glassfish, OpenSolaris, NetBeans and our Grid Engine.

Will you change their platform priorities?

Absolutely not.

Why not?

Because the L in LAMP stands for Linux, not Looney. Customers prioritize MySQL's platform choices, not Sun. As with Glassfish, their number one download platform is still Windows - and we're very committed to those developers, as well.

Will you change MySQL's choice of license (the GPL)?

No. As you can see with Java, and with Glassfish (and NetBeans and OpenOffice), we're huge supporters of the GPL.

Are there cost synergies in the deal?

Nope.

Are there revenue synergies in the deal?

Everywhere we look.

Where are the revenue synergies?

The more interesting question is "where aren't the synergies?" Wherever MySQL is deployed, whether the user is paying for software support or not, a server will be purchased, along with a storage device, networking infrastructure - and over time, support services on high value open platforms. Last I checked, we have products in almost all those categories.

In addition, the single biggest impediment to MySQL's growth wasn't the feature set of their technology - which is perfectly married to planetary scale in the on-line/web world. The biggest impediment was that some traditional enterprises wanted a Fortune 500 vendor ("someone in a Gartner magic quadrant") to provide enterprise support. Good news, we can augment MySQL's great service team with an extraordinary set of service professionals across the planet - and provide global mission critical support to the biggest businesses on earth.

Where will you take MySQL next?

That's a question you'll need to vector to MySQL - both before the acquisition (given that we're still separate companies), as well as after. We're not acquiring them to tell them what to do - we acquiring them to listen. To their leaders, their community, and their customers.

And having listened to about 10 customers face to face over the past couple days, I've heard only one comment, made consistently - "Congratulations, this is absolutely fantastic news for all of us!"

I totally agree.

______________________________

Here's a quick interview Rich, Marten, Greg and I did on the Sunday before we signed (personally filmed by noted director Anil Gadre)... pay attention to the good luck charms that show up around the 3:30 marker...

(sorry for all the reposting...)

Posted on 08:52AM Jan 19, 2008 | Comments[47]

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Helping Dolphins Fly

We announced big news today - our preliminary results for our fiscal second quarter, and as importantly, that we're acquiring MySQL AB.

If you're interested in the financial details for the quarter, tune in to our conference call (see details on sun.com) today - we'll obviously have more to say as we release our formal results on January 24th.

But the biggest news of the day is... we're putting a billion dollars behind the M in LAMP. If you're an industry insider, you'll know what that means - we're acquiring MySQL AB, the company behind MySQL, the world's most popular open source database.

You'll recall I wrote about a customer event a few weeks ago, at which some of the world's most important web companies talked to us about their technology challenges. Simultaneously, we gathered together some of the largest IT shops and their CIO's, and spent the same two days (in adjoining rooms) listening to their views and directions.

Both sets of customers confirmed what we've known for years - that MySQL is by far the most popular platform on which modern developers are creating network services. From Facebook, Google and Sina.com to banks and telecommunications companies, architects looking for performance, productivity and innovation have turned to MySQL. In high schools and college campuses, at startups, at high performance computing labs and in the Global 2000. The adoption of MySQL across