HR Geek: (Product) Strategy for the Rest of Us

Congrats to Jim Mitchell and crew for getting Sun into Wired's Jargon Watch for the June 2008 issue. Perhaps a dubious honor (and a dubious definition), but fun all the same.

Macrochip
n. An array of microchips connected by lasers, enabling them to communicate at the speed of light and effectively function as a single processor. Sun Microsystems secured $44 million from DARPA to build a prototype; it should extend Moore's law.

For those that missed it, Neil Young's demo of what he's doing with Blu-Ray technology is posted now and well worth your time. The interview and demo starts at about the 4:45 mark. Streaming is here and there is also an MP4 download.

Sichuan province suffered a major earthquake this morning (my time - 2:30ish PM local time). Sun has a sales and service office in the state capital of Chengdu and I sincerely hope that both our staff and their family and friends are safe.

I was in Chengdu in August 2006 doing research related to China's promotions efforts for the west of the country. The staff in Chengdu were extremely friendly and hospitable to me. We spent part of a day sight seeing and if my memory is correct, actually had lunch in Dujiangyan (or very close to) where a school has collapsed.

From what I have heard so far, Chengdu suffered only minor damage, so my hopes are high that all are safe. All the same, my best wishes to the staff.

Did Neil do anything to make Sun attractive to the Millenials? I still doubt it.

Was his demo on what can be done with BluRay cool? Definitely.

I don't think I've ever seen a better demonstration of the power of the new platform, nor a more compelling reason to consider upgrading now.  Made me seriously considering upgrading anyway. For those of you who missed it, I don't think it's posted yet, but I'll watch for it and post and update.

I don't know that I heard anyone say it out loud, but the JavaOne intro was a good effort to make concrete the abstract notion of an Internet of Things (something Scott McNealy (and others) started talking about years ago). The combination of small devices (e.g. sensors) and software to (paraphrase) "make visible things that are currently invisible" in pursuit of economics and environment. Measurement of traffic patterns (people or vehicles), measurement of environmental factors (carbon dioxide, pollutants in water, seismic activity), and on and on. I strongly believe that this will be the next wave of network expansion and I'm really hopeful for the life improvements these advancements will enable.

There's a very interesting post on ZDNet's Between the Lines (with the above title) about OpenSolaris 2008.05. A few highlights:

While very much community software and not yet at the level of polish for end-user adoption that many of the latest Linux distributions are now enjoying — shows promise and enormous potential as an enterprise-class UNIX desktop and server with an Ubuntu-like flavor.
...
I’m very impressed with the OpenSolaris 2008.05 release — clearly, Ubuntu’s success has rubbed off on the OpenSolaris crowd, and thus it has adopted a lot of that Linux distribution’s look and feel. End-users for the most part should feel right at home with OpenSolaris, with its up-to-date GNOME 2.22 interface, the very same that powers Ubuntu Hardy Heron’s. The installation system boots as a Live CD, just like Ubuntu, and installs with only a few mouse clicks. Many new configuration applets and end-user programs have been added, making Solaris a much more “livable” environment than its big brother, Solaris 10.
...
Beauty is not only skin-deep. OpenSolaris employs the very same enterprise-proven high-performance Solaris 10 kernel that powers the biggest and baddest Sun boxes, and has the stability and monolithic scalability to match, something that commodity Linux desktops and servers — while far more stable and sprightly than Windows OSes — lack in comparison.

I've used Ubuntu quite a bit so the comparisons both make some sense and please me. I'll admit to some serious skepticism about Project Indiana (the effort to shift OpenSolaris to a package-based environment), but it sounds like it's been pretty successful. I'll be interested to hear what others thing following CommunityOne and I'll be watching closely to see if it goes GPLv3 (wish I had insider knowledge on that one, but I don't).

OpenSolaris is the first and only System V-based UNIX to have been released into Open Source. However, it uses the CDDL license, a MPL-derivative which is incompatible with the GNU GPLv2 license that Linux uses. This has prevented Solaris source code from co-mingling with Linux, and has also set up a virtual “Mirror Mirror” universe of OpenSolaris developers that don’t really cooperate with the general Linux population at large. As a result, porting and packaging efforts of major Open Source projects and software to Solaris have been relatively slow when compared to the many releases and fast adoption of the various Linux distributions. However, there has been some recent indication that Sun might release Solaris into GPLv3, which would cause a watershed of activity on the platform, as many packages and projects which run on Linux distributions are going in that direction as well.

If you didn't feel like buying a ticket to see it live (and/or don't care about Neil Young), you can still catch the JavaOne General Sessions via live webcasts. [I think some/all are being recorded. Whenever those become available, I'll post a follow up.] Here's the schedule for the general sessions that are being webcast (all times Pacific):

Tuesday, May 6, 8:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
Rich Green, Executive Vice President, Software
"Java + YOU"

Tuesday, May 6, 1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Robert Brewin, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Technology Officer, Software
"Java-Centricity: Leveraging Java Technology at the Hub of Your Digital Life"

Tuesday, May 6, 3:20 p.m.–4:20 p.m.
Jeet Kaul, Vice President, Client Software Group
"Java Wherever You Are"

Wednesday, May 7, 8:30 a.m.–9:15 a.m.
Thomas Kurian, Senior Vice President, Oracle Server Technologies Development
"Enterprise Application Platform"

Wednesday, May 7, 5:30 p.m.–6:15 p.m.
Leendert vanDoorn, Senior AMD Fellow
"The Role of the Microprocessor in the Evolution of Java Technology"

Thursday, May 8, 8:30 a.m.–9:15 a.m.
Douglas Fisher, Vice President, Software and Solutions Group, and General Manager, Systems Software Division, Intel
"Innovations through Software"

Thursday, May 8, 5:30 p.m.–6:15 p.m.
Christy Wyatt, Vice President, Software Platforms and Ecosystem, Motoroloa
"Dial in, Drive Deep: Using Motorola's Platforms to Reach Consumer and Enterprise Markets"

Friday, May 9, 8:30 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
James Gosling, Vice President and Sun Fellow
"Extreme Innovation"

Margaret Lee, a colleague of mine from my time in Location Strategy, sent me a very valid question:

Okay, so I didn't listen in on the Second Life on Tuesday [Sun held an internal Second Life event with speeches by the Sun execs]. But when did everyone decide Sun was now a Software company? Everyone keeps talking about it like, of course we are a software company. Last I remember, we were a "Systems" company and we were using Software (free) to drive revenue from services. I know we're growing Open Source software, etc., but has there been a re-branding that I just missed? Wow, that was quick....

It's a core element of our strategy to drive adoption of Sun technology, and indeed much of that is tied to Software. We also seem to be buying Software companies like crazy these days. But the way we make money relies on monetizing that adoption through things like commercial support contracts, licensing, and infrastructure sales. And let's not forget that we have open sourced things outside of software (e.g. OpenSparc, OpenStorage, etc.)

Software may drive the adoption strategy, but the real value of Sun is its ability to optimize hardware and software in concert and to develop unique solutions that leverage Sun's strengths in not just software, but in processors, servers, and storage (and services!) as well.

Nope - you didn't miss it at all. In fact, I think you get it better than the "everyone" you mention (I removed the names to protect the not-so-innocent). We are a "Systems" company.

If that's changed, someone let me know and I'll do a follow-up post with my resume.

Wish I had permission to share (or even quote), but alas, Gartner asks folks to pay for its research and to request advanced permission to quote. So you'll just have to trust me.

If you have access to Gartner reports, check out the report titled "Open Source at Sun Microsystems, 2008" (research note G00156448), part of their current series on "The State of Open Source". It's a really interesting read on how Gartner views Sun's commitment to Open Source, divided into sponsoring projects, leverage open source technologies in its own products, supporting and integrating with external open source projects/products, and providing direct (commercial) support for open source products and technologies. (Hint: "Extensive" in all categories. Oops - sorry Gartner.)

[BTW, Sun purchased access to the report for its employees. Expect it to appear on the front page of SunWeb before too long, but if you can't wait, ping me and I'll get you the right URL.]

Another great source for interesting tidbits on projects and where ideas come from is the Contrarian Minds series.  I had thought this was internal only, but ran into it on the external Sun Labs site today and had to pass it on.  I'll avoid personal commentary on any of these folks except to say how many of them I've run into during my career at Sun and how many of them are great at explaining extremely complex topics in very simple ways.  

I'll also say that it's hard to avoid stepping on these Contrarian Minds folks if you attend the Labs Open House.  This year's Open House was held in early April and if you weren't there, I feel sorry for you - it was a fantastic learning opportunity with some really interesting technology.  (And yes, most of it is open to press, analysts, customers, and *gasp* even a few "competitors"  (they're all partners now - remember?).)  Fortunately, nearly all the sessions were recorded and both the presentations and the on-demand video has been posted.   Take a look.

[If you're a Sun employee, there's also an internal site which has videos of the employee-only presentations.  Those top secret, not yet ready for prime time, "00" clearance only things.  SSSHHH!]