Can Sun make money on Open Source software? Will the billion dollar bet on MySQL pay off? Tuesday’s announcement was very encouraging.

On Tuesday, September 9, 2008, Sun announced that Belgian-based ERP software vendor Stésud adopted and deployed Sun’s open source MySQL database and GlassFish application server software.

Benoit Lemaire, CEO of Stésud stated, “Java-based GlassFish was the first piece of the puzzle we identified to meet our stringent new infrastructure requirements. As soon as Sun acquired MySQL, we decided to employ it as our new database rather than Oracle. With Sun behind both GlassFish and MySQL, it was the best open source infrastructure combination for our needs and for our customers’ operations.”

Yes, it does appear that Sun’s open source software strategy is working, particularly when multiple products are in play. This gives customers the benefit of open source innovation and open access at a significant cost advantage over the competition, while delivering very significant license and support services revenue to Sun. Win-win is a sustainable business model.

Technorati Tags: Glassfish, MySQL, Sun Microsystems, Open Source