It is a known fact that Java never helped Sun in generating enough revenues to keep it going. Commercial App Server vendors like IBM, BEA/Oracle have benefitted more from Java than Sun. Sun got carried away with the initial euphoria around Java created by the developer community. Though Microsoft came out with the unified language runtime based on CLR called .NET much later than SUN, it managed to gain more traction and market share. Sun missed multiple opportunities in the last couple of decades. It couldn’t capitalize on the ubiquity of Java on the desktops and servers. It failed to play a crucial role in the mobile revolution by not exploiting the power of Java in mobile devices. Though they had a decent stack of developer platform powered by Java, Glassfish and NetBeans, it couldn’t make the best use of it. MySQL acquisition was strategic but Sun was confused on leveraging that opportunity too. By end of the last decade, Sun was bleeding and had no option but to be a part of Oracle.
But above all, I believe Sun missed a fantastic opportunity in the last couple of years. That is by not becoming an enviable ‘Platform as a Service’ provider by offering Java in the Cloud to developers that could give Microsoft and Google a run for their money. Azure is a strategic move for Microsoft. Though it was a reluctant attempt, MS had no choice but to move to the Cloud. Had it not by MS, it would be Amazon or another vendor who would offer .NET platform on the Cloud. It is natural for Microsoft’s customers to transition into Azure because it runs the same familiar stack. Now Microsoft is definitely the best PaaS provider out there. What Sun failed to get from Java could have been achieved by the Java based PaaS. Developers trust Sun because of its track record of involving the community and the industry through the JSR process. Sun could also potentially offer LAMP platform as a service. Even today there is no viable LAMP stack available as PaaS. There is a bunch of Amazon AMIs that run the LAMP stack but it is more of an IaaS than PaaS. Every non-Microsoft business and developer would have looked up to Sun for hosting their Cloud app and service. Sun had everything up their alley! They have OpenSolaris that can run the virtualization infrastructure. They have world’s best development platform in the form of Java. They have the most trusted database called MySQL. A Cloud platform offering all of these on subscription would have been a killer service from Sun. Google’s App Engine supporting the Java stack is not complete. It is not the same JDK that runs on my App server. I have to refactor 90% of my app to port it onto App Engine only to get locked-in to their platform. Sun had a huge opportunity to be the ‘100% Pure Java’ based platform on the Cloud. Sun had everything except the dollars and the strategy to make it big on the Cloud. Now comes MySql in the Cloud. What a pity that it is not Sun but Amazon who is making money by exposing MySQL as a service! It is a blunder by Sun not taking MySQL to the Cloud before anyone did. Forget about Sun offering MySQL on the Cloud, MySQL’s future is in jeopardy as Oracle is known for mercy-killing of their competition in the guise of acquisition. Oracle would never want to position MySQL to its enterprise customers who have been paying annuity revenue for decades.
While Larry Ellison continues to make confused statements on Cloud Computing, Sun and Oracle combo is still figuring out what Cloud is all about!
