Sun v. Oracle

Note to Jonathan: It’s not about data, its about applications. I re-read this blog entry ab/ Sun’s self-congratulatory analysis of MySQL’s market opportunity:

https://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/mysql_wins_at_linkedin

and could only think of how little this guy understands about what OSS is all about, even as he portrays the company that he runs as the pre-eminent open source provider, which it very well may be.

It is with desperation these days that Jonathan talks about market opportunities, and in reality, he is missing the target that needs to be addressed if Sun is to regain account control. That target is Oracle.

The problem with banking on people or customers to take openSolaris seriously is that it ignores the fact that its most acute competitive threat comes from within: in the form of commodity chips from

Intel, running Linux, and Oracle software. Oracle has not been shy, discreet, or even concerned about the nature of their relationship with Sun: it is simply about installed base, as they have no intention

of doing expansionary deals on Sun boxes, no new accounts on multi-core, and no shared revenue on software. I might have been a bit harsh on Jonathan’s competitive analysis friday on the earnings call,

with his reference to IBM hardly competing with Sun, but it could be argued that he may be on to something that Oracle is truly the number one threat to Sun’s viability. It is time to compete head-on.

The markers are WebLogic and the Database, of course, with Glassfish and MySQL being uiquely positioned to under-cut the hell out of the top-line and margins that Oracle commands on their middleware

and mainstay database businesses. The question is not whether some Web 2.0 company, that has absolutely zero revenue plan, liked LinkedIn, invests in free software with some support contracts, the question

now is how to transfer account control over software pricing and functionality. This is the way to bring many hundreds of additional T2 multi-core customers in to the center of Sun’s installed base. Of course, this

assumes that Jonathan ditches openSolaris. It just pisses me off that a simple change in direction, a multi-tenet partnership with Red Hat, and a new marketing chief could turn things around in one quarter. But

I am going to stay on message, and try not to pain myself with the thought that all that i say here could be just window-dressing if the operating systems disaster is not taken care of…

Back to my original note to Jonathan at the beginning of this entry: MySQL can perhaps manage data updates from members who change their favorite colors on their profile, but can it handle asynchronous, multi-

integration points, EJB fail-over application updates? That is the question you have to ask your team, and find out what direction to take MySQL, because leaving it up to the community is exactly what you do

not have the luxury of doing following $1B; leave that to Drizzle. Utilize the core MySQL kernel to bring about a new Enterprise Java focused business plan, and hit Oracle where it hurts, on the middleware

market where standards matter, and where portability is possible. The same could be said about SQL-to-SQL conversions for Oracle databases, but the low-hanging fruit is the middleware market, and then

convert the database customers.

I can only assume that this blog entry will be seen as a positive step for Sun, and not a hit against Oracle, as they are doing fine without Sun. Now, if a real competitive front were to be established, it would be a

delicate dance between the former sibling-like allies, especially with the sales force. But we are talking about the ongoing lifespan of Sun, and sooner rather than later, a tough decision will have to be made in

Santa Clara, and I suggest that getting Oracle off the price list is just the sort of move that makes things more risky, but certainly more interesting, and with one move, a potentially game-changing move toward

relevance again. I have said it about a dozen times before, about this price-list issue, but it is only a matter of time, until Oracle Linux takes away all Sun accounts; perhaps, maybe I am just dreaming here, but perhaps

it is time to fight back. I honestly don’t know what to say anymore, I know the problems are plentiful, and complex, and long-term, but I have run from such problems before and they only get worse over time.

Wishful thinking on openSolaris, partnerships with enemies, and bad leadership are no excuse. It is time to change, and I am generally pretty inexpensive to bring-in to correct the middleware problems. I mean

what else is there to do: bring in McKinsey to advise on where to do the most effective R.I.F.’s; c’mon, do better than that…