MySQL Culture and Business Philosophy Goes Mainstream at Sun
MySQL is undergoing some organisational changes as part of Sun. Mårten Mickos (MySQL AB’s CEO 2001-2008 and SVP at Sun 2008-) is moving on in his life, outside Sun. This is independent of Michael “Monty” Widenius’ recent departure.
I’ve worked for Mårten ever since joining MySQL in 2001, in various capacities (VP Training, VP Consulting, VP Services, VP Engineering, CIO, and since 2005 VP Community Relations). I will obviously miss working with him. At the same time, I can understand and respect his decision to move on to something else, and wish him all the best, whatever his upcoming pursuits will be.
I owe Mårten much of what I’ve achieved in business during this century. I’ve known him since 1981, and counted him as a close friend ever since. Even if the era of working for the same company has come to an end, I look forward to spending some non-business-oriented time with him.
While parting ways can be very painful, I am certain that MySQL’s culture and business philosophy will live on in Sun, thanks largely to Mårten’s contribution. In fact, you could say MySQL now becomes mainstream at Sun. Former MySQLers continue in key positions, in some cases with a mandate to generalise and apply MySQL related learnings on other Open Source products. In fact, the newly formed organisation that MySQL now is part of includes GlassFish, Open SSO and Open ESB, thus making us part of the industry’s by far largest open source based group. It is a natural evolution in becoming a regular product at Sun — as opposed to being treated separate and different as we have for the past year. That time has been important for us to be “grafted” into Sun, but now it is time to move forward.
As anytime when the person at the top changes, other changes will certainly follow. The key point to remember here is that MySQL, the product, remains alive and well. Sun is completely committed to building a big open source based business and very much supportive of the various communities it is engaged in. In another blog, I will expand upon what this means for the future.
February 6th, 2009 at 19:43
It’s definitely sad to see Marten leave. He was an exceptional CEO and not afraid to make the hard decisions, even against difficult odds.
The good news is that there are many good managers within the organization. Karen Padir, who runs the middleware and identity engineering organization is a very good manager. We got to know her quite a bit over the last year and I think she will be well received.
–Zack
February 7th, 2009 at 11:31
[...] MySQL Culture and Business Philosophy Goes Mainstream at Sun [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 16:00
I met Mårten when Karen, Bill and I talked with him, Zack, Kaj and a few others during the Holiday break in 2007 and I’ve enjoyed working with him at Sun since then. My best wishes to him on his new endeavors and I’m sure our paths will cross again.
Looking forward, one of the positive things of the announcement is that I will get many more opportunities to talk and work with Kaj et al., as we both report into Karen. Looking forward to continuing to help MySQL grow.
- eduard/o
February 7th, 2009 at 22:05
Does this mean MySQL will become more open source friendly, like Glassfish? I would like to see us recognize the community, and not simply point to how many users we have.
February 10th, 2009 at 17:34
[...] fallout Kaj Arno maintained that “MySQL’s culture and business philosophy will live on in Sun.” He added: [...]
February 24th, 2009 at 6:51
[...] “The key point is to remember that MySQL, the product, remains alive and well.” - Kaj Arno’s blog [...]
March 18th, 2009 at 1:16
I think the whole thing is SUN want to put Mysql 100% under under his leadership. This probably means more user friendly and more free software.
June 27th, 2009 at 14:54
[...] some weeks ago we were hit by the surprising news that Mårten will leave Sun, just a few days after Monty had decided to do so [...]