What could be done to bring a non-hosted software platform to Google, in the form of Oracle’s Glassfish application server? It would be a fork job, which is not unprecedented, but would be the very first salvo opened up in a Google-Oracle competitive front, if either of them even actually want to initiate that. But every day that Microsoft comes up with VisualStudio, .Net, IIS, and BizTalk enhancements is another opportunity for the incumbent to wriggle free from the death spiral that Google has created for them. It is time to engage in the enterprise software competitive front, and take on Redmond from all angles. It is my determination that Glassfish, even a fork effort, is the best option to get engaged on enterprise software via Google Code. There would be an over-pouring of developer interest in getting involved in Google’s Glassfish effort, and it would not have to be a purely Enterprise Java effort, it could include Go, Guice, and Web ToolKit, among others, which also could include Spring. Essentially, Google could make their own app server on the back of the OSS Glassfish, which is the most feature complete platform, JBoss included. Glassfish’s Shoal clustering feature could be supplemented with Google’s own distributed computing efforts to create a truly cloud app server, and sell it to their enterprise clients, or simply give it away, to create more interest in the Code site, to bring more developers on-board Google’s effort to extend and enhance Java. The entire Glassfish ecosystem is ripe for investment, as it begins to languish in the arms of a software vendor that is too busy selling WebLogic Fusion to give much resources or attention to their other app server, Glassfish. Google has the resources to test out the strategy and let the developer community help decide the future direction of the Enterprise Java Reference Implementation. With some execution, Google would form a competitive front to Microsoft’s .Net on the server-side, and give their vast enterprise accounts something to play with, and possibly invest in, while still following Google’s next moves on enterprise Java. As Google makes nearly all their money from advertising, they are somewhat exposed in the medium-term to a scale back in ads, or in a new competitive effort to scale back their 70% money machine in ads. Enterprise software is the next category for Google to conquer, and it is a market that is ready for some disruption, as SpringSource has shown. Google would not be hurting their relationship with VMWare on the clouds, as Spring runs on Glassfish, and it would diversify their options for developers to code in Java-like apps for the enterprise. An optimized Glassfish for Google technologies would be hard to beat, and by keeping it open source, it would not be a major resource drain, at a time when they are clearly ramping much development on Android. An enterprise software strategy would very simply give Microsoft no room to run. By looking at the available documentation, and the right team, a fork of Glassfish would be doable, and the potential long-term benefits could be more than predicted at present. Simply by investing in bringing more open source projects to Google Code, like what a fork of Glassfish would provide, would cement Google’s place in the minds of Java developers, worldwide. This is a market opportunity that is tough to ignore, with Oracle not in a position to devote as much energy as Google to enhancing the Enterprise Java platform, Google could be the standard bearer for the specification, as they are already part of the expert group. There are so many different features, from single sign-on, to cloud infrastructure, to enterprise apps, that would benefit from a Google hosted app server program, that it begins to play out as a logical next move for the company with the most to gain from entering the enterprise software market, officially. The fork would take at most 9 months, about the same time to get Chrome OS out-the-door, and would be on par with its significance, as it would be hurting Microsoft, while helping millions of developers looking for direction, following the Sun acquisition. I encourage your comments to suggest further arguments on why Google should enter enterprise software, and whether you agree if Glassfish is the next logical step. Thank you for reading. Java