Constellation Insights

Oracle signals intent to move Java EE to open-source foundation: While Java EE (Enterprise Edition) has always been open source, a somewhat different perception has taken hold since Oracle gained control of the widely used programming language through the 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Much of Oracle's own software is written in Java, and while it has led support and development of it, many other vendors—including IBM and Red Hat—have as well.

Still, concerns have been raised over Oracle's stewardship of Java and those only grew louder last year, when it appeared Oracle's committment to Java EE was waning. There were even reports that Oracle planned to entirely cease investment in Java EE and instead move to a proprietary Java runtime. In the end, Oracle publicly affirmed its long-term committment to Java, although the long-delayed Java EE 8 has yet to surface.

Now, Oracle has revealed it is exploring whether to move Java EE to an open source foundation, a decision that would relinquish some of its influence on the language while pleasing community members who have wanted such a change for years. Oracle software evangelist David Delabassee explained the company's thinking in a blog post:

We are discussing how we can improve the Java EE development process following the delivery of Java EE 8. We believe that moving Java EE technologies including reference implementations and test compatibility kit to an open source foundation may be the right next step, in order to adopt more agile processes, implement more flexible licensing, and change the governance process. We plan on exploring this possibility with the community, our licensees and several candidate foundations to see if we can move Java EE forward in this direction. 

We intend to meet ongoing commitments to developers, end users, customers, technology consumers, technology contributors, partners and licensees. And we will support existing Java EE implementations and future implementations of Java EE 8. We will continue to participate in the future evolution of Java EE technologies. But we believe a more open process, that is not dependent on a single vendor as platform lead, will encourage greater participation and innovation, and will be in best interests of the community.   

Delabassee also said "great progress" is being made on Java EE, with a reference implementation coming soon.

POV: Oracle's move provides another data point for how open source, community-driven development is making strides, says Constellation VP and principal analyst Holger Mueller. "It's a win-win for the Java community and Oracle," he says. However, "writing a blog is one thing," he adds. "Living the direction is another." It will be interesting to see the community's reception at the upcoming JavaOne conference and beyond, Mueller adds.

Vishal Sikka's mark on Infosys: In a sudden, but perhaps not so surprising move, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka announced he is leaving the Indian outsourcing giant. Sikka didn't leave the news to be issued in a bland statement from Infosys's PR department. Rather, he penned a lengthy, candid blog describing his reasons for leaving. Here are a few key excerpts.

For days, indeed weeks, this decision has weighed on me. I have wrestled the pros and cons, the issues and the counterbalancing arguments. But now, after much thought, and considering the environment of the last few quarters, I am clear in my decision. It is clear to me that despite our successes over the last three years, and the powerful seeds of innovation that we have sown, I cannot carry out my job as CEO and continue to create value, while also constantly defending against unrelenting, baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks.
 
Three years ago, I started this journey with a calling, to help reshape the company around innovation and entrepreneurship, to deliver breakthrough value for clients, and to help elevate our work, our standing, our selves, on the basis of a dual strategy, bringing together dualities of renew and new, automation and innovation, people and software, to show a new path forward in a time of unprecedented disruption within the industry and beyond.
 
We have grown our revenues, from $2.13B in Q1FY15 to $2.65B this past Q1. We did so while keeping a strong focus on margins, closing this past quarter at 24.1% operating margin, beating some competitors for the first time in many years, and improving against most in our industry. 
 
Sikka came to Infosys from SAP, where he headed up all product development. But his key achievement there was HANA, the in-memory computing platform that is being woven into all of SAP's software. He brought a similar emphasis on invention to Infosys, applying design thinking methodology, a "grassroots innovation" program called Zero Distance, and pushing the company into generating more of its own technology, such as its AI platform Nia.
 
But Infosys's board wasn't unified in support of his vision, and the infighting Sikka alludes to in his blog ultimately proved to be too much.
 
POV: Where Sikka goes now is unclear, but it would not be surprising to see him take a leadership role at a pure enterprise software vendor, particularly one focused on next-generation infrastructure software and cloud services. For now, he will remain at Infosys for several months in order to help with the transition to a new CEO.
 
"Vishal's departure is a loss for both Infosys and the market," says Constellation founder and CEO R "Ray" Wang. "There is massive change required to succeed in the next disruption and even IT services vendors will have to make the hard choices. The next CEO will have to have the full backing of the board to get there."
 
"What Vishal succeeded at was giving Infosys a shot at the art of the possible," Wang adds. "This is not lost on its investors."
 
Trump elevates U.S. Cyber Command: U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered that the Pentagon's Cyber Command group be elevated to Unified Combatant Command status, a move that puts it on par with the nine preexisting unified commands. These commands are responsible for certain geographic areas, such as Europe, or like Special Operations Command, are focused on certain types of missions.
 
Trump's move represents a bold expansion of the U.S.'s intentions for not only cyberdefense, but cyberwar against the likes of ISIS and North Korea. In a statement, Trump explained his rationale:  
 
The elevation of United States Cyber Command demonstrates our increased resolve against cyberspace threats and will help reassure our allies and partners and deter our adversaries.   
 
United States Cyber Command’s elevation will also help streamline command and control of time-sensitive cyberspace operations by consolidating them under a single commander with authorities commensurate with the importance of such operations. Elevation will also ensure that critical cyberspace operations are adequately funded.  
 
Secretary of Defense James Mattis is also considering whether to separate the Cyber Command from the National Security Agency. The latter focuses on intelligence gathering rather than cyber defense and attacks.
 
POV: While Trump's announcement has been met with a largely positive response, it's probably a good idea to temper one's expectations. "All organizational restructures are political, especially when they're done by politicians," says Constellation VP and principal analyst Steve Wilson. "In my view, org charts are always more about power than substance, and that's perfectly fine. Management is all about getting a job done, having people in the right place, people you have confidence in, and who have confidence in you."
 

But there's a towering challenge to keep in mind, he adds. "The biggest problem I see in organizing for cyber warfare is that we still have no idea what it means," Wilson says. "Cybersecurity itself is on terribly shaky ground, because cyber itself is more metaphor than material. Cybersecurity is parlous because our systems are mind-bogglingly complex, brittle, rushed in development, poorly tested, poorly inspected and poorly understood. Military cyber command is being asked to defend civilian critical infrastructure built from spaghetti code."

So it may not matter much how the military's cyber command structure is organized, Wilson says: "What we need is free thinkers who will come to grips with the novel nature of the assets they're being asked to defend."

 

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Chief Information Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Digital Officer