how to beat JBoss (via Glassfish)

I was recently asked about the burgeoning initiative around Glassfish and how it could compete with JBoss. As I have mentioned, the two are completely complimentary in turning back the proprietary oligopoly of WebLogic, WebSphere, and Oracle Fusion:

Glassfish v. JBoss [1]

But given that this is a competitive market and given the corporate tendency toward a Solaris v. Linux struggle, there is going to be some consideration of how to catch-up with the original Enterprise Java OSS platform.

"No sales pitch, no media hype, no hydro, its nice and right." (the Streets [2])

First things first, what we are talking about is an ecosystem, because as has been proven not once (WL), not twice (WS), but three times (JBoss), the true measure of an enterprise app server platform is how much business is carried on top of your infrastructure. The Glassfish team has been particularly effective in building a technology ecosystem, but has yet to build an effective solutions business. I say this with no disregard for the efforts of the Java app server team at Sun, top notch is my opinion. But there is a new game with the release of SJSAS 9.0, and the upcoming builds of Glassfish stabilization. Sun is officially leading the JEE5 market, including introduction of EJB3, Java Persistence, and an integrated web framework around AJAX, JSF, and JSP.

With very little of the Enteprise Java market on version 5 yet, this does not carry a whole lot of business...yet. What needs to be done is to move Glassfish in to a business model not just a location on java.net. This is a Java OS, as I have said, and an OS requires a channel system that will pull along Glassfish and the magical model of Sun hardware with it. That is why the upcoming suggestions might be read by Jonathan sometime - - if Glassfish is a business and with each new build there is a growing expertise in the ISV and SI markets, there will be a "volume" market for Glassfish. The magical "pixie dust" that Red Herring used to talk about in 1998 in regards to Sun's use of Java will soon become a wedge used by Sun to get into accounts. Hardly just pixie dust. Glassfish, not Solaris, will drive Sun's hardware business, and this is the introductory steps that need to be taken to get there:

1) Beyond discussion forums, Glassfish partners need a section of the glassfish.dev.java.net [3] portal dedicated to porting, performance, and integration of ISV apps on to Glassfish. This should include best practices, documentation, and success stories. Get Mary Mary [4] involved, and make some contests out of it. This is the advantage of a Java Web Services marketing org.

2) Build an ecosystem with a repository of solutions offered on Glassfish, and match these with cusomter needs. This will take a gigantic leap of faith fro Sun's management to turn over Glassfish leads away from Sun GSO and to partners, so maybe integrate the two in the sales process. What I mean by this is to provide a web section, similiar to what Flashline used to do with their components marketplace where customers would theoretically state their development need, and developers would bid on the service to provide as a solution. In this case, on the Glasfish portal, build the capability for customers to state their needs, and let the ISVs and SIs bid on the solution.

3) Allow consultants to suggest intiaitives that will advocate design wins on Glassfish. Like I was saying to Eduardo, I will be working with Diamelle and will have leads for how to build a complete Identity and Access Management (IAM [5]) solution on top of Glassfish. When consultants currently have suggestions for how to generate business on Glassfish, there is no methodology for how to connect with the appropriate Sun sales engineer. I may be available to bring joint marketing of Glassfish in to the IAM market, as well. How should I do that? Mary, you owe me one. :)

In close, Glassfish is on the edge (dare I say at the precipice [6], as well) from developer relevance to business execution. It is time to consider that the market is holding its breath and seeing whether Sun will blink as they (app server competitors) have been stunned by the hugely successful launch of Glassfish. Don't blink, Sun. Now is the time to put the foot on the accelerator and move the market according to the business needs of Galaxy (v. IBM and HP) and Niagara (v. Azul). Now is the time to build the ecosystem that will carry not downloads, but measures of millions of dollars in partner revenue. Make the Glassfish partners happy, and then give me one reason why they would not recommend Sun hardware for the actual deployment. Everything is in place, fund the ecosystem...

Positivity...