Ray Lane, currently with Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, was COO of Oracle while I was there. He has an excellent editorial piece on Sandhill.com: “There are two paths to long-term survival for today’s enterprise software companies. The problem is that very few companies are heading in the right direction.”

In his propsal that software companies must innovate to dominate a market, Ray recommends a transition from Proprietary Architecture to Open Architecture, from Perpetual License to Subscription License, from Product Offering to Service Offering, to name a few of the steps companies must take.

Doesn’t this sound like the direction Sun is heading?

Tags:
Sun Microsystems
Ray Lane
Innovation

I saw photos of two ghastly green things in the past week. The first, a “transgenic” pig, had been bred to glow in the dark. The second was a mannequin.

There is something spooky about green pigs and green mannequins. Both exude an overwhelming fake quality. But again, maybe Dr. Seuss was a prophet.

Tags: Pig
Transgenic

With all the hubbub about Apple’s rebound, I’m sure everyone is sharing their favorite Steve Jobs story. Here’s mine.

In 1984, I worked for a small custom software developer, Eyring Research, in Utah. We had built a strong reputation building custom systems based on the Tandem NonStop computer system.

Soon after Apple launched the Macintosh computer, we were approached by Tandem about helping them sell Apple on the virtues of operating the new Apple Macintosh factory in Fremont, California, on a network of Tandem systems. The DEC PDP11/70 system in place was simply too small to keep up with the factory’s manufacturing capacity.

I wrote the business plan that helped convince Apple to select Tandem, and then managed the project to implement the Tandem system in the Fremont factory. It was called the AppleTOES project, but that is another story.

Steve Jobs was still Apple’s chairman and VP of the Macintosh division at the time. One day, I was reviewing the project with Steve in his office when he asked, “Did we do the right thing in selecting Tandem?”

What could I say? I had recommended it. I replied with a few facts about how this system would meet their current needs and then linearly expand as capacity demands grew.

Steve replied, “Yes, I think we did the right thing for now. But we will soon replace this system with a network of Lisas.”

Remember Lisa? That underpowered, overweight, expensive predescessor to the Mac?

I’ve thought in the many years since that time that Steve was absolutely correct in his vision – using large networks of small, powerful computers to do the work that 1984 computing philosophy reserved for large monolithic systems. He was just wrong about the platform.

Now, 22 years later, Steve Jobs is again demonstrating his extraordinary vision.

Tags: Apple
Steve Jobs
Macintosh
Lisa
Eyring

*God Doesn’t Think He’s Larry Ellison.

This week’s “town hall” featuring Scott McNealy and Larry Ellison reminded me of this book I read while I worked at Oracle. While I don’t agree with Larry Ellison’s “win at all costs while exploiting everyone I know” business mentality, I do acknowledge that Oracle continues to be an amazing force in the information industry. It is good to see that Sun and Oracle are working well together.

Tags:
Sun Microsystems
Oracle
LarryEllison
ScottMcNealy

Interesting article from the Daily Telegraph on Jonathan Schwartz and blogging.

One paragraph: “For Mr Schwartz, blogs are a vital management tool and give his firm a competitive advantage. ‘It is such a natural extension of what I do now,’ he says. ‘Leadership is all about communications, it’s what leaders do. Almost by definition your set of responsibilities comes down to who you pick to work for you, how much budget you give them, and then what do you say all day long when you are trying to motivate change and drive people forward. So blogging is a tool that, especially for leaders, is critical to amplify your communications.'”

Tags:
Sun Microsystems
Jonathan Schwartz
Blogging

Paul Krill of Infoworld Techwatch reports, “CEOs from Sun Microsystems and Oracle on Tuesday plan to hold a ‘Town Hall’ session at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif. to discuss the vendors’ ongoing partnering plans.”

My present and former employers in a town hall meeting? Both Scott and Larry? Could be interesting.

Tags:
Sun Microsystems
Oracle

Maybe the attitudes represented in The Register‘s report are sending SUNW in the right direction!

Tags:
Sun Microsystems

MaryMary already pointed this out, but it is certainly worthy of re-mention. The Register just published the results of its reader survey, “IT Suppliers: Your perceptions.”

Their web page proclaims, “Well, the results are in, and they show Sun was the company with the most favourable impression amongst our readers.”

I particularly liked the phrase from the downloadable report, “67% of those who mention Sun do so in a positive manner, compared to around 40% positive nominations for its closest Top 5 rival, IBM.”

That, my friends, is a big statistical difference.

Tags:
Sun Microsystems
The Register

Pat Sullivan, who is best known for launching the companies that gave us ACT! and SalesLogix, wrote a short but compelling piece yesterday about earning success through sacrifice in Iraq.

I particularly liked his statement, “Some Americans have come to expect that great things can be accomplished without sacrifice.”

Tags: Freedom
Sacrifice
Iraq

“Puppies are popping up everywhere amid the rubble left by Hurricane Katrina,” states an AP article reported by CNN.

The only thing wrong with cute little puppies is that they tend to grow up to be dogs. 🙂

Tags: New Orleans
Katrina
Dog