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"it's not Java on the desktop that is going to keep Microsoft from owning all computing, it's Java on the server. The better enterprise Java gets, the more powerful applications can be, and there's nothing Microsoft can do to get in the way of that."
First of all let me thank you, Alfred, for taking the time to talk to us at JDJ...
JDJ: Let's go back to that day in October 2001, when you stepped into BEA as its new CEO. What was your perception of the Java industry at that time?
AC: I was tremendously excited by the capabilities of J2EE, and the huge acceptance it had already achieved in the enterprise. For the first time in enterprise software there was a realistic hope that a standard software platform for enterprise computing could be adopted. J2EE had already proven its suitability for mission-critical applications, and competitors like IBM, Sun, Oracle, and BEA were able to put aside their differences enough to make J2EE a viable and powerful standard. I was also very proud of BEA's leadership role in driving J2EE forward.
As much as I was excited about the potential of enterprise Java, I was well aware that the platform was still too difficult for the broader community of developers to adopt en masse. Changing that became one of our top priorities.
JDJ: Nearly two years on, how has your view of the Java industry changed?
AC: The Java standard has continued to move forward, but at too slow a pace. We're committed to the Java Community Process, but we're unhappy that it takes as long as it does to get innovations added to the standard.
Look, we have a huge lead on .NET, as far as what is possible to put into production for a mission-critical application at a customer site today. They are years away from catching up. But the community takes that too much for granted. Microsoft's powerful marketing machine can convince many people that they are catching up or even passing J2EE. So a one- or two-year lead isn't enough. We cannot be complacent.
This is why we work so hard to drive our innovations into standards. There are many customer problems yet to be solved. Customers don't want proprietary solutions, but they do want their problems solved now. We have no choice but to innovate fast, give those innovations to our customers, and simultaneously drive our innovations into the standards.
I also think that the Java camp wastes too much time attacking Microsoft. In the real world, customers are going to have both Java and .NET in their organizations. They have to make these technologies work together. They aren't interested in hearing anyone trash the competition. They are much more interested in hearing how we'll be able to work well in a heterogeneous environment. So we've taken great care to make sure we have great interoperability with Microsoft. In many ways, customers realize that WebLogic's proven mission-critical capabilities and openness make it the ideal on-ramp to the enterprise for the departmental .NET applications that they have.
JDJ:
