Will Sun begin buying?

When Jonathan Schwartz took over the post as head-honcho of Sun, I kept my opinions quiet. My suspicion was that Schwartz might help to focus more of Sun's resources on its identity management business, but it was just that - a suspicion.

Today, I find this article confirming my suspicions.

The reason for my suspicion was simple: Companies really do follow the DNA of the guy (or gal) at the top - and under McNealy, Sun was always going to be a hardware company that happened to have some software stuff going on. But Schwartz, while knowing the history, doesn't carry those preconceptions. Now, with customers and analysts saying that Schwartz should make identity management a greater focus for Sun, perhaps the company will listen.

To be clear, Sun's identity management business line has been very successful - with several high-profile customer wins as of late. But its important to realize that Sun's greatest "identity victory" wasn't in its founding of The Liberty Alliance, but rather in its purchase of Waveset. The integration of Waveset's product and people has proved to be the jet-fuel that propelled Sun to the front of the identity management pack.

Will Schwartz, hearing the calls for more focus on identity management, seek to acquire "another Waveset"? Will Sun suddenly become part of the identity management acquisition cycle that's happened as of late?

If I was a betting man, I'd be putting money down at the window - particularly in the areas of virtual directories, real-time policy enforcement and federated web services.