Sun’s JavaSoft division faces widespread reorganization

April 10, 1998 — Sun Microsystems is reorganizing its JavaSoft division in the face of growing complaints from partners about JavaSoft’s failure to meet product deadlines and its continual redrawing of the line between its role as a product company and as the guardian of the Java platform.

To address these issues, a new regime has been established within JavaSoft that will be headed by Jonathan Schwartz, JavaSoft’s new director of product marketing. Schwartz is the former CEO of JavaSoft’s Lighthouse design subsidiary and a member of The McKinsey Institute.

“It’s true that we are undergoing a reorganization and that Schwartz is in charge of redefining JavaSoft’s role as a product company,” confirmed one senior Sun official who requested anonymity.

Despite Schwartz’s new role and influence, senior Sun sources denied any change in JavaSoft President Alan Baratz’s role within the company.

Partners hope the changes make a difference.

“JavaSoft is not meeting product schedules, not meeting deadlines, and generally confusing the market,” said one JavaSoft partner who requested anonymity. “Most of the time we don’t know if they are going to end up competing with us. But we do see Schwartz as a very brilliant product strategist.”

Nonetheless, JavaSoft has a lot of fences to mend with its partners, and critics have said if JavaSoft doesn’t get its product strategy right, the freeware industry will do it for them. Recently, a group of programmers created a freeware version of the Java virtual machine, available on a Web site, and another site has created freeware Java class libraries. (See Resources for links to these Web sites.)

JavaSoft angered its partners by slipping on its deadline for HotSpot, its dynamic compilation technology, and then informing partners that it planned to charge as much as 50,000 for the technology.

Also making waves is JavaSoft’s decision to get into the object request broker (ORB) business, isolating key partners such as Iona, Borland, IBM, and Oracle. The company’s ORB will be included in the next generation of its Java Development Kit, and JavaSoft will charge separately for ORB services.

“We would welcome a change within JavaSoft, because they have taken a competitive stance,” said Annrai O’Toole, chief technology officer at Dublin, Ireland-based Iona Technologies. “We tried to tell them that there is little value to creating their own ORB and over-bloating the Java Development Kit, but they wouldn’t listen to us.”

Analysts said JavaSoft needs to change its company culture.

“JavaSoft is obviously an engineering-led company,” said John Rymer, director and senior consultant at Upstream Consulting, in Emeryville, CA. “They have been producing new technology almost monthly but they lack the focus of a serious technology company.”