SpikeSource's Polese on open source

23.01.2006

Polese: It will be related to our customers that we're seeing out there in terms of how they're using the product, and specifically customers as they are willing to be identified. Obviously in the beginning, when you're starting to sell, it takes a while for customers to be willing to be identified publicly, but that will happen over coming months. So [we will discuss] customers, partners, deployments, how is it really working out there in the world of IT? How are people using our services?

InfoWorld: I was looking at your biographical information on the SpikeSource Web site, and it mentioned you were the original product manager for Java at Sun Microsystems. Do you think after 10 years that Java has met, exceeded, or fallen short of your expectations?

Polese: Well, [this] is a personal opinion, it's not a SpikeSource opinion, but I'm thrilled with the success of Java. It has exceeded my expectations. It's a phenomenal number of developers, of devices that are deployed based on Java, enterprises that are using Java. And I can tell you this anecdotally, in our customer base [when] talking with companies, most of them are using Java. Java is very much mainstream when it comes to enterprise applications and I don't see that changing any time soon.

InfoWorld: One more question about Java. Do you think Java needs to be available in an open source format, or should they stick with the Java Community Process?

Polese: That's one that actually I prefer not to weigh in on right now. I [haven't been] examining the community model lately and contrasting that to a pure open source model, so rather than stating an opinion without having thought about it, I'd like to hold off on that one.