Scott's the Word

"The IT industry is screwed up."

"I don't buy Microsoft, do you?"

"I wish I had thought of Google."

Frank and forthright words like these can only be expected from people like
Scott McNealy, who are everything but mealy-mouthed. He never minces words when
it comes to making a point. Exactly what he did in India in the third week of
May.

From advocating the renaissance of the participation age and open source
revolution, to evangelizing the role of IT in the higher ecological concerns, to
brazenly dressing down the proprietary richie riches, he covered it all in his
brief jaunt to India.

Ecologically responsible technology remained his leitmotif. McNealy
listed increasing power budgets and energy costs as one of the top challenges
that data centers, and the industry face today. Using the metaphor of
Frankenstein, he explained how CIOs end up piling up inchoate pieces of
technology that soon turn obsolete, costly, and disfigured.

"There are three costs involved in a new technology: the acquisition cost,
operation cost, and burial cost. There are huge amounts being spent in migrating
legacy systems, which is a grave CIO concern. People who are above the Moore's
law curve can not afford to get locked in," McNealy said, citing DB2 and Vista
as technologies that have no provision for exit.

McNealy hinted that Microsoft offerings like Vista lag on the burial side of
costs. "Technology from any major vendor will become obsolete before you install
it. And offerings like DB2 or Vista will give you an upgrade that is 2% less
than the cost of exit. The result is that a CIO runs deeper in the earlier
technology for the next two years yet again and that makes burial costs harder,"
he said.

He further passed this tip to CIOs: "Ask for the right to use with a
three-year support package but also demand for a migration package. The likes of
IBM and Microsoft will say migration is not my problem. You figure it out.
That's what makes you get stuck in old technology. Be very careful when getting
on an aeroplane with no doors, you might want to get off it."

An Open View

Advocating the open source revolution and criticizing proprietary standards,
he said, "Technology has the shelf life of a banana, why not share it? The
technology we have today will be obsolete in 18 months. Why protect your IP?
Instead share, publish and document it openly. Sun is one open-source company
that not only opens its IP but also indemnifies it. Others may just let you use
their open code but the risk of litigation is upon you. At Sun, we will take the
bullet for you."

There was no dearth of McNealy's smart slingshots: "We are not just great,
but a good company. We work hard. We don't cheat. We don't spy. And, we do a
funny and weird thing-we share."

Lower engineering costs, better participation in technology and more security
were the main advantages of open source in McNealy's list: "Conventional wisdom
says open is less secure. But, think closely-open is more secure. As long as you
have a secret within you, someone will discover it. Humans cannot keep secrets.
But open source is naked and thus has nothing to hide."

Talking about the business mathematics of the open revolution, he shared how
Sun, which embarked on this way back in 1982, makes money selling something that
is free. "If you open something, more people can use it. It drives volumes and
volumes drive value. Most of the STBs, mobiles, blue-ray discs, and PCs today
are Java-based. We see 50 to 55 mn Java virtual machine downloads a month.

This creates enormous traffic on the networks and helps us sell more servers,
and other stuff. To us, everything is a Java browser, make it ubiquitous, create
traffic and then monetize it."

On how open companies can mint money, McNealy said, "You can always sell
something free but you have to figure out which piece of your business model is
free. Rest can be monetized. Google is a great example."

"If I take our own example, 37% of world's data resides on our platform. We
have given 7.6 mn Solaris licenses free of cost. By doing this, today most of
the engineers work on Solaris indirectly helping our server or workstation
sales," he said.

On Indian Mavericks

It was his second visit to India. Unsurprisingly, his itinerary was
chock-a-block with Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore being his major halts post a
visit to Japan. "All conference rooms look the same, be it India or elsewhere,"
was his opening remark in Bangalore.

He had some compliments too in his concluding remarks earlier at Mumbai.
"Indians are mavericks. I like that. They do not follow hierarchy and have a
maverick mindset, a trait that is often a double-edged sword for them. I love
this trait."

He attended an exclusive evening in Bangalore with top Indian IT CEOs after
kicking off Sun Technovate '07 in Mumbai, and spoke on data center woes' "40% of
the cost in data centers will be because of energy. It is a social and political
issue. Our project, Blackbox, will help in energy savings and managing
hassle-free data centers," he said.

During the question and answer session at the exclusive Nasscom CEO summit in
Bangalore, McNealy admired the evolution of Google and compared it to Apple:
"Apple looks at fat-clients, whereas Google saw software as a service. Even iPod
is a fat client," he said.

He also delivered the keynote at the Sun Technology Summit '07 in Bangalore,
addressing over 500 developers, and discussed the importance of open standards
for developers as they bring applications to market and quickly monetize them.
"This strategy fuels innovation and drives collaboration, both key ingredients
for growth. And it is helping the 3.5 mn developers in India to deliver
applications that ultimately drive economic and global progress," McNealy added.

During the press meet in Bangalore, McNealy said that Sun's new product,
Blackbox, is being shipped in the US and in the next six to eight months, it
will be rolled out in the different geographies including India.

Among other things, he pointed out emerging issues like the speed of Moore's
law and its implications. McNealy also complimented the beauty of YouTube's idea
and how a bunch of kids raked in $1.6 bn with a Google sell-out in mere 18
months. "What did I do wrong?" he quipped.

Even with all his witty potshots at other big boys around him, he is one
person who can afford to escape 'scot-free'.

Pratima Harigunani, CyberMedia News

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in

With inputs from Srinivas R in Bangalore