Jonathan Schwartz has been the inheritor apparent of Scott McNealy ’s at Sun Microsystems Inc. for some time , but many had doubts when he take over as president and main operating ship’s officer of the struggling trafficker in 2004 that he was the correct man for the job .
“ A couple of geezerhood back mass said , ‘ Oh , he ’s a flashgun in the pan — he wo n’t do well reorganizing and managing the party through toughened times ’ , ” said Laura Koetzle , vice president and research director for Forrester Research Inc.
But in the two years since he ascend to the upper ranks of Sun , Schwartz has shown real mettle at kick - starting a reversal with sheer strategical moves and layoffs McNealy had long avoid that helped the caller trim fat and swing cost , analysts pronounce . Even if Sun is never again the technology giant it was during the heyday of the dot - com gold rush , it ’s potential to remain influential and to regain some of its old prance and gainfulness under Schwartz , they said .
“ I ’m impressed , not just by his clarity of imaginativeness and general executive sharpness , but he has proven he can deal with problematic situations managerially , ” Koetzle articulate .
Even so , all eyes and an ocean ’s worth of pressure will be on Schwartz to proceed that kind of leading now that he is main executive officer as well as president at Sun , a move that was announced Monday . Sun cofounder and prospicient - fourth dimension steerer McNealy will remain as chair and take on a new situation as chairman of Sun Federal , which serves government customers . Sun has no program to fill the vacated COO position , according to spokeswoman Stephanie Von Allmen .
Many feel it ’s been Schwartz , not McNealy , who has been steering the ship through some of Sun ’s bold moves in recent years . In summation to personnel department cut , they include product maneuvers such as open sourcing Solaris as the proprietary OS bowed to competitive hotness from Linux , and creating a new per - user pricing structure for its Java Enterprise System software retinue when competitors like IBM Corp. and BEA Systems Inc. scoop Sun in the Java software food market .
At the same clip , Schwartz also ensured Sun kept the portfolio of its core business — hardware — fresh and innovative . Under Schwartz ’s tenure as Chief Executive and COO , the troupe invested in dual - core Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. to take out its humbled - oddment product line , which was miss for many years , as well as ensured Sun was ready to supply base for the growing harvest of web - based applications with its next - generation line of Niagra multithreaded processor .
“ He ’s been call a lot of the plays over the last couple of years , ” Jonathan Eunice , an Illuminata psychoanalyst , tell of Schwartz . “ This is his architecture , this is his strategy that Sun is fiddle . He has really put a lot of energy and new cerebration into Sun . ”
“ Succeed or fail , the newfangled stuff Sun is trying , from becoming the world ’s biggest Opteron reseller , to Open Solaris , to the pricing they ’ve done with the Enterprise Java System , is having an effect on the industriousness as a whole , ” Koetzle said . “ They ’re force the industry to make changes it does n’t need to make that are good for customer , and I acclaim their fearlessness . ”
“ We ’ve got a great guy cable here — a guy I ’ve been trying to get into this role for quite a while now , ” McNealy said . “ He and I can end each other ’s sentences . We ’re very aligned strategically … and he ’s get something that ’s very rare , and that ’s courage . ”
“ This is McNealy ’s company , ” she said . “ He did n’t want to be the one to leave when the chip were down . He wanted to leave behind his successor on a positive flight instead of , ‘ Here , I ’m leaving you a mess to make clean up ’ . ”
There have been signs of biography at Sun lately , even before Monday ’s annunciation . The strain cost has been creeping up , and climb by about 8 per centum in after - hour trading Monday when Wall Street reacted positively to the executive changes .
Sun , too , has shown its strategic apprehension in the last yr , adjust itself with diligence heavyweight Google Inc. , said Joe Wilcox , analyst with JupiterResearch . Though what will actually be delivered through the deal , which at this detail is a shadowy technology partnership around the Java runtime , is still up in the air , he said it predict well for Sun ’s success in the hereafter to be paired with the industry and Wall Street pet .
“ Sun still has the influence — do n’t count them out yet , ” he said .
have it away for being candid , level-headed and relentless when it make out to staying on message about Sun ’s scheme , Schwartz will continue to push a plan to provide internet infrastructure , including ironware , software and professional services , for Web - ground services that touch on a range of gimmick , analysts say . The Google deal will likely play a pivotal role in that , they said .
straight to character , Schwartz hit the ground lead in his fresh office , already hinting at more change to come at the companionship in a conference call following his appointment . He advise that Sun might be mulling an acquirement in the undefended - source securities industry in the near future in an effort to uphold to grow its cache of assailable - author software .
“ Are there acquisition opportunities out there ? perfectly , ” Schwartz said . “ We will be one of the consolidators in the open - source industry . ”
company suggested by industry percipient as possible learning targets for Sun are open - source database company MySQL AB and Linux marketer Novell Inc.
( Stephen Lawson and Robert McMillan in San Francisco impart to this report . )
