Sun to Focus on Identity-Based Middleware

Rich Green, the executive vice president of software at Sun Microsystems, is a very busy man these days.

Green, who returned to the Santa Clara, Calif., company in May after software head John Loiacono resigned to take an executive position at Adobe Systems, is not only overseeing the complex process of open-sourcing the company’s Java technology, but is also putting a greater focus on identity-based middleware solutions.

At the same time, Green continues to push key initiatives like the OpenSolaris project which, over the past year, has attracted a large developer community and which has seen some 5 million code downloads.

“You will see a redoubling of that effort and we will move to accelerate that even further,” Green said.

Click here to read more about what John Loiacono had to say in his farewell blog.

“I think you will also see a greater focus on identity-based middleware solutions, which are important in this world of identity theft, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and homeland security regulations,” Green said.

“I think we offer a set of services and capabilities when integrated from Solaris through the middleware, that no one else can do. You will see more richness there,” he added.

With regard to the open-sourcing of Java, Green said the process was “moving along nicely. Our intent is, as initially stated at JavaOne, that we fully plan to do it, but we want to make sure we do the right thing for the community and the technology. There’s a lot to analyze here.”

The process involved taking note of the dynamics of the community, the participants, the JCP, and other community programs, forces and licensees so Sun could make sure it was doing the right thing by all of them.

A Sun executive recently warned that open-sourcing Java could create an incompatibility risk. Click here to read more.

“This is not trivial and there is as much emotion as there are business and legal issues here. We want to make sure that we are doing the right thing and doing it cleanly; it’s just work, Green said, adding that Sun is trying to ensure that all of the many parties involved had their best interests supported.

“As we move to open source, it is interesting as there are so many people involved, and yet we are accused of not involving enough people,” he said.

“Part of the delay is because we have involved so many for so long that we have to work through it all. The delay is simply a function of how open we have been,” he said.

Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Sun to Focus on Identity-Based Middleware