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From the Editors: Sun needs grown-ups


By SD Times Editorial Board
April 15, 2009 — 
Is a big, successful IT company going to buy Sun Microsystems? If so, it would be good for Sun—and for the industry.

Mid-March saw rumors flying about a potential Sun acquisition by IBM. As you would expect from two large, publicly traded firms, nothing official was said by company executives. It’s possible that the rumor was a trial balloon. It’s possible that someone spilled some inside information. It’s possible that it was entirely fictitious.

The rumor did spark furious commentary by pundits, who offered their opinions as to whether such an acquisition would be good or bad.

Our opinion: It’s time for grown-ups to run Sun, and if that means Sun’s acquisition by IBM or another big player, then we’re all in favor.

Under chief executive Jonathan Schwartz, Sun has too much vision, too little execution, and doesn’t play well with others. Sun’s many technology geniuses have grand ideas, but company leaders haven’t found a way to turn those ideas into profitable revenue streams. Investments are scattershot, ranging from pushing the limits of high-end data center hardware, fostering open-source operating systems, pushing Java, competing in the mobile space, sticking to its knitting on developer tools, entering the rich Internet applications market, entering the open-source database market, and more.

Pundits have been scathing about Sun. So has the stock market. In his blog on March 2, Schwartz wrote that the company need do only three things: recruit developers, deliver compelling commercial offerings, and execute an effective selling/service connection between developers and commercial offerings.

Sun has a strong developer message, but it’s not knocking the ball out of the park. Sun has strong commercial products, but it’s not taking the world by storm. On the sales front, Sun certainly hasn’t delivered; even Schwartz calls it a “work in progress.”

That’s where the grown-ups come in. It’s time for a mature, business-centric company to take over Sun and its tremendous product and intellectual property portfolio—and turn them into a business.

Certification testers: Clean up your act
It’s easy for cheaters to obtain answers to IT certification tests. The test industry must do a better job of policing itself, ensuring that its certifications have genuine value, demonstrate expertise, and reward hard work.

The firms that issue certification exams must perform the due diligence necessary to reduce cheating. Failing to do so robs the companies in whose names they’re issuing the tests. It also steals from the honest professionals who work hard to earn their certifications, and it makes a mockery of the organizations that rely upon those certifications to help screen job applicants, hire consultants and reward their employees to gaining certifications.

Answers to many certification tests can be found within minutes on the Web. A community of cheaters works endlessly to outwit the authorities.

Getting certified may not guarantee a job, but it will get a job applicant through the door. Certifications can also mean high pay. Put simply: It pays to cheat.

We’re not naïve. We know that testing companies make money from issuing tests. The more people take and pass those tests, the more money the testing companies make. Making the tests harder to cheat on will cost them more, both in added investment and in a reduced number of certifications issued.

Too bad. The value of a certification is measured only by its trustworthiness. Rampant cheating degrades the certification and harms the individuals and organizations that invest in taking the tests and using the certifications.

We call upon the test organizations to do whatever it takes to restore trust to their tests—including rotating their question pools more often, going after websites that trade in tests and answer sheets, and punishing test-takers who cheat by publishing their names and banning them from future tests.

And we call upon the companies in whose names many of these certifications are offered, like Microsoft, Cisco and IBM, to hold their test organizations to the highest possible standards. It’s time to behave with integrity.


Related Search Term(s): Sun


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