This blog post just reinforced my belief that Sun has the potential to be a great turn around story a few years from now.

The CTO of SmugMug wrote a really nice comment about Sun – Companies That Listen: Sun:All in all, I’m still feeling pretty dang good about our decision to go with Sun for our servers. An emphasis on innovation and willingness to listen to their customers

Delighted, because I’ve been a SmugMug’ger for ~3 years and DGrin’ner for longer, and it’s great to know that you’re investing in great, cutting-edge equipment.

Relieved, because I happen to also be a Sun employee and it’s good to know that fellow employees have been doing exactly what they were *supposed* to be doing by listening so closely to SmugMug’s needs. I’ve heard (non-photographers, yet!) “talking in the halls” about SmugMug, so word really does get passed around. Rapidly growing new businesses like SmugMug — regardless of size *today* — are vital to the future of our nation’s overall economy (and of course, as customers for any vendor, including Sun). If Sun listens when customers are small, it seems a good bet that it will still be listening when they grow much larger. And I fervently hope that SmugMug’s real growth ain’t yet begun.

And BTW, congratulations on firing off support for (HD, yet!) *video* on SmugMug. What a class act .

That said, I recall attending a Sun Services internal conference a few years ago when Scott McNealy related this anecdote:

One of the questions I was asked by a new staff member was about our corporate dress code: “What is Sun’s dress code? I haven’t seen anything mentioned about it”

Scott replied that Sun did indeed have a corporate dress code: “You. Must. Dress.”

Had us all in stitches – because it’s exactly what the attitude is. We wear what is appropriate for our daily environment, and don’t get stressed about it.

Glad you enjoyed the event, and I’m even happier to find out that smugmug – which my sport-mad brother-in-law uses for showing us what he gets up to on his mountain bike – Sun kit.