…is the title of this post written by Tim Bray a few days ago in which he outlined the directions he would like to see his employer take to improve its fortunes.

He also invited others to continue the thought process. Many have already done so (I’ll include the best in tomorrow’s CAOS Links post) and given my recent constructive criticism of Sun’s open source strategy I feel compelled to provide some answers as well as questions.

I’m sure there are lots of things Sun should be doing with relation to storage and servers and processors and client devices, but I’m going to stick to what I know. What would I do?

Light a fire under MySQL
When Sun announced its acquisition of the open source database vendor it promised to put the full weight resources behind MySQL to position it to challenge Oracle et al for supporting mission-critical applications on Web architectures. Unfortunately the imminent (both then and now) MySQL 5.1 was promptly delayed by three quarters for more development and testing.

I have no doubt that the delays were necessary and the result will be a much-improved new version with which Sun can hit the ground running, and it needs now to create some momentum behind MySQL 5.1 to ensure that it benefits properly from the massive community edition support and increased enterprise interest.

The company needs to ensure that it sticks to the regular release roadmap defined for Enterprise Edition and, perhaps more to the point, has a committed and knowledgeable sales force to convert users into paying customers.

Empower the MySQL execs
People like Marten Mickos are too good to be restricted to the database unit (unless they want to be). Sun acquired some great people with great experience in open source that should be applied across the organization.

Make MySQL the focus of further acquisitions
Whether or not Sun generates some cash by selling off under-performing assets it probably needs to generate revenue momentum through acquisition.

MySQL is good, but it is a database engine that relies on an ecosystem of partners to compete at the highest level. Sun has the opportunity to assemble the various components, such as database clustering (Continuent) and backup and recovery (Zmanda). Meanwhile Terracotta’s JVM clustering technology has the potential to improve the performance of both MySQL and Glassfish.

Data warehousing is also a potential acquisition area. If Sun chooses to go the MySQL route then Infobright is an obvious target.

Alternatively the company has also already invested in and partnered with Greenplum, which would complement its earlier investments in PostgreSQL support and differentiate the data warehousing market fro its MySQL business.

Either way, business intelligence would be the next logical step, for which there are a variety of potential open source targets.

Set them free
Sun should identify which of its software projects could benefit from further independence (I’m thinking Java, OpenOffice.org) and set them free via the creation of independent foundations. As Tim wrote: “As for Sun’s role as Steward of Java, and in particular the Java Community Process, let it go already. Java has mostly won and is mostly the establishment, and the community is smart and conservative enough to keep anyone from doing what Microsoft tried last millennium, or in any other way to subvert Java’s interoperability. In 2008, the JCP is costing Sun opportunities and friends and gaining us very little that I can see.”

Find a way to join Eclipse
I do not know what reasons prevented Sun from joining Eclipse following the breakdown of earlier negotiations (although I am sure there were some very valid ones) but duplication of effort is a luxury that Sun cannot afford right now. I’m not saying Sun should throw in the towel on NetBeans either (although it should certainly be performing a cost/benefit analysis on it), but it needs to find a way to benefit from the collaboration that is taking place in Eclipse or it will become increasingly isolated. Obviously this one may not entirely be in Sun’s own hands.

Encourage the vendor community around Solaris
It may seem to contradict the two points above but I am not of the opinion that Sun needs to throw in its lot with the Linux community in order to avoid duplication of effort with Solaris (at least not yet). The Unix operating system remains a major differentiator for Sun but could be better exploited through more community engagement. Keep in mid that community does not have to mean individual developers (and rarely does). There is a strong community of IHVs and ISVs and SIs with the potential to engage on the improvement of Solaris and to benefit from its improvement.