BEA's always been a company that's invested in cutting-edge technology. Yet some of your competitors, including Sun Microsystems, are implementing the Java standards available rather than adding features beyond the standards and trying to sell on price. Is cutting-edge technology what the market wants all the time?
First of all, until we get to a much bigger size, that's the only way that we can play. Otherwise, why would people buy from us? People come to BEA because we have the most innovation, the most reliable, the most usable, most user-friendly technology. That's the driver.
Many new technologies are being sold. Look at how navigational devices in cars went from 1 percent to 15 percent last year. Why is that happening? Ultimately, technology does change the way we live life.
These people are saying, "we don't need to implement more technology, and because we're bigger, you'll buy from us." That never flies. If that were the case, then (mainframe makers) Univac and Sperry should still be in business. They were big enough, had stuff that was good enough, and thought that people don't need to innovate further. I really believe that innovation will be a very important factor for a very long time for a company like us.
How do you become a $3bn company by 2005, innovative technology aside?
Distribution is a very key part. You can't just keep hiring sales reps to sell directly -- the Oracle model. Eventually, you get stuck even at that size. Or at IBM's. IBM is not a growth company, and neither is Oracle. People don't talk about it, but neither is really a growth company! We have to look at what technology we have that isn't worth selling on our own anymore. Those are the technologies that the distribution channel can really help us selling.
Do you want to stake out the high end in terms of product functionality and consider open-source products?
Not necessarily. I only see open source as an opportunity to create broader adoption. I don't see the application server facing competition from open-source technology any time soon, because the API (application programming interface) is too dependent. People depend on the application server to run reliably, and there's such a small cost.
Linux is being adopted because it runs on cheap boxes. They don't care -- you can take an application that runs on Solaris and put it right onto Linux because of J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition). But that is not the case with the application server. The application server today is not as transportable, because it's not a commodity.
