Direct Access

Direct Access Transcript
Sun Share Campaign
Jonathan Schwartz, President and COO

John Gage: Jonathan, how does technical change create societal change?

Jonathan Schwartz: Well, I think that's a pretty big question, John. I think the problems that we're applying technology to, the solutions we're seeking with technology, have interesting commonalities between all the different spheres where we see technology being applied, whether it's in medicine, or education, or science, or in the commercial sphere, or even in the political sphere, for that matter, which is we're trying to connect to opportunity, we're trying to go seek information, seek opportunity, and to seek different ways of looking at a problem based on an ability to look at it from a multitude of different perspectives. The network is all about connecting us to those opportunities. And I think for businesses, or students, or scientists across the world, to be able to use those technologies effectively, they've got to be affordable, they've got to be connectible, they've got to be fundamentally interoperable, and clearly, that's what we're trying to drive with the innovations - you know, $2 billion a year, that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to drive the innovations that create opportunity, both for Sun as well as for our customers.

JG: Does connection imply sharing?

JS: Well, I think at a fundamental level we're big believers in sharing because it's very difficult to connect on a GSM network with a cell phone if the members of the GSM association all elected to use a different standard. We wouldn't be able to connect to one another. So, at a fundamental level I think connectivity implies a necessary foundation built on sharing. If you're committed to the idea that you want more people to become participants in the community, then you've got to make those standards available, ubiquitously, you've got to share them.

JG: So, to build a system that allows sharing implies we build a system founded on trust.

JS: Well, I'm - you know, I - there's an interesting tension in the network because you can't have the network without security, but the network is all about sharing things, and security in some sense is all about making sure you don't share things. And so, I think that's going to be a tension that exists for as long as the two of us are on this earth and for the future generations, as well. I think trust is obviously the currency of the participation age. You can't really trust a participant on the network unless you kind of have some level of understanding of who they are, that you're going to be paid for the goods or services you're offering, that you're not going to be defrauded or have your identity stolen. So, I think you have to work on both the technologies that promote connectivity, those standards that promote security, but also those that allow for a level of trust. Whether it's digital rights management or policy or identity management, you've got to be able to span that gap to give people the safety and comfort they need to be able to go use the technologies you're delivering.

JG: What has Sun been building to enable sharing?

JS: Well, I think from the very outset of the company we've been built on this idea that opening the standards will create broader market opportunity, and although in the short run a proprietary product may be more valuable because it immediately solves the problem, in the long run, if it's not open, that solution will become a niche. It will not address the problems of a diverse network where there's a multitude of devices or systems that want to talk to one another. So, I think we've been really driving those standards, trying to share the technologies, as well as the perspectives, to go drive toward that objective, and we've also been investing similarly a very large amount of our resources in security and policy and those technologies that can help bridge the tension between the networked world and a secure world.

JG: Sun is taking an initiative in extending sharing across global networks.

JS: So, one of the most interesting changes that we see occurring in the marketplace is although individuals, those of us at home, have become very comfortable going to eBay or going to Amazon to transact a - you know, we want to go purchase something, participate in an auction. Within the enterprise we've actually seen very little of that, and as we've begun to talk to customers about on-demand computing, they're all very - you know, they're teased up about it, they're really interested. But the reality is, most of the other vendors that are out there have solved that problem by descending upon you with a great number of consultants who can help you figure out a different way to arrange your data center or finance your data center, and that's not really the same kind of services that you and I might use when we're at home, sitting in front of a browser.

Well, as we've begun to roll out this concept of a grid, a few things have become evident. One, that the barriers to adopting a grid aren't necessarily technical. They're more cultural than they are technical. The idea that you're going to use someone else's computing resources is familiar to those of us that are at home that may make cell phone calls on someone else's network or run auctions on someone else's auction site. But within an enterprise, for us to get to that same level of services delivered through a network, we've got to go through, I think, a couple iterations of anthropological changes to say, "Maybe I'm going to use someone else's computing resources. Maybe I'll use someone else's grid." And I think the challenge for us now is to really go work on some of those cultural changes that need to occur for a data center to take advantage of a network of services, as much as consumers obviously are taking advantage of them every day.

JG: With major customers, with the General Motors, globally extended, with the intelligence agencies, the armies, the telephone companies, the banks, globally extended, would an offer of this kind of market in computing really catch hold with CIOs?

JS: So, I think the CIO of General Motors is obviously pretty interested in saving money because they just signed up for the largest Java enterprise system license in the history of the introduction of the product. So, I think certainly, being able to appeal to a business that they could begin to harvest some value is going to be interesting.

Now the real question, and I think the genesis of your question, is how comfortable would they be doing that in a public network. So, do I think it's realistic that within the next year we're going to see businesses deliver computing resources back into the public network? I don't think that's realistic in the short run. Do I think it's realistic for them to build those shared service utilities and use our grid technologies and tools to make those centralized services available to all of their business, to share the services, share the utility? Absolutely. And so, maybe the government would say "For medical research within this community of users these will be the pooled resources so that not everyone has to build their own data center with their own staff." And within a particular company, maybe a large financial institution, they may not make that generally available to the public, but they could certainly make it available on the intranet and say, "When you want to get access to these resources, maybe you bid for the resources, you use your departmental spending dollars to go get them." I think it's a very interesting way of thinking about cost recovery, as well as utilization.

JG: What do you see as the biggest challenges in bringing technology to bear on these issues of sharing, of identity, of building global markets?

JS: I think the biggest challenges we have in front of us are not necessarily technical in nature. I think some of the biggest problems are really cultural. You know, can we deliver a grid today that is radically less expensive than most data centers? Absolutely. Can we talk to a CIO to get them and their heads of security comfortable with using a public network to get access to that technology? That's a much harder chore, it's a much more difficult challenge, not necessarily because the technology isn't there but because the cultural model hasn't moved there. Again, when you look at what you do at home as a consumer, we've almost outsourced everything. I mean, not very many of us run our own server ranches at home anymore, and that's not to say there weren't a lot of us before, but we don't anymore. We've begun to use - whether it's eBay, or Amazon, or CNN.com, or Verizon, or Vodaphone, or NTT Dokimo - we've begun using other service providers to go get access to the information and capacity we need. That shift needs to occur in the enterprise. It's only going to occur as companies like Sun can demonstrate the security, the integrity, and the safety of moving toward that model. The economics are there. We know it. Now we've got to make it safe enough for folks to actually want to take the risk to begin to change the way they run their business.

JG: Jonathan Schwartz, thank you very much.

JS: It's always a pleasure, John.

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