The Hindu Business Line : ‘Open source software set to change biz paradigm’

Hyderabad, Feb. 27 Open source software and its innovative distribution models are challenging the traditional approaches to software business, according to Mr. Rich Green, Executive Vice- President, Sun Microsystems.

Software begins and ends with developers where collaborative development is bringing down overall time for new technology and innovation.

The focus now is on developing more applications, much faster, harnessing the power of new technology tools in an open environment, Mr Green said delivering his keynote address at Sun Tech Days.

Sun Tech Days is a three-day event hosted at Hyderabad with video links to Chennai and Bangalore. Some 9,000 developers are participating in the event.

About 1.2 billion new Java powered mobile phones were shipped last year and already about 6 billion Java devices have proliferated across the world.

This number can only get bigger as more applications get delivered on to mobile phones, which are becoming like thin clients, with more packed into them, Mr Green said.

“Software business paradigm of the past is changing rapidly and volume is becoming a major driver. This only questions the current day proprietary software. Most of the software is now offered as download or through subscription models and you won’t see this being shipped in disks that call for bootstrapping,” Mr Green said.

MySQL buy

Referring to the recent acquisition of MySQL for about $ 1 billion, Mr Green said that unlike traditional database software providers, MySQL has designed products that suit the requirements of the Web. On an average, MySQL has about 50,000 downloads a day.

Likewise, the recent acquisition of German firm Innotek, Mr Green said, has the capability of virtualisation on desk tops. This is particularly useful for developers as it allows multiple operating systems to run on one desktop, allowing access to information from anywhere within. This helps cut short development time.

Speaking on “The platforms that power the network economy,” Mr Green encouraged the developer community to innovate more through open source communities. Developers are backbone of software development and they create new possibilities, inspire thought and drive innovation.

The Vice-President, Developer Community Marketing, Sun Microsystems, Mr Ian Murdock, said Sun is the world’s largest contributor to the Open Source Community and its model offers developers and end-users the opportunity to collaborate and build upon the best.

Referring to its Solaris operating system, Mr Green said that the company has partnered with original equipment manufacturers such as Dell in league with Intel to offer next generation servers. The new Solaris platform is poised to be unveiled in middle of 2008.

Sun Micro has 3.1 million developers and of them about 6,52,610 are based in India which has emerged as one of the fastest growing community. The event highlighted the need for Indian developers to collaborate, compete and contribute to global technology platforms.