the very creators of MySQL, ZFS, etc are at their company
The creators of MySQL used to be at their company, anyway.
they are pretty much the only ones able to offer Amazon a run for their money at the moment
I'm not so sure; IBM, Microsoft, and Google all have the technology and the personnel to be a pretty compelling alternative to AWS, although they've failed to deliver so far. What does Sun have that any of these companies don't?
The creators of MySQL used to be at their company, anyway.
they are pretty much the only ones able to offer Amazon a run for their money at the moment
I'm not so sure; IBM, Microsoft, and Google all have the technology and the personnel to be a pretty compelling alternative to AWS, although they've failed to deliver so far. What does Sun have that any of these companies don't?