I've been with JBoss for a while and during that time, we have grown from 20 people to 200 people (right before joining Red Hat), and are now part of a global Red Hat team of almost 2,000 people. That is 100x growth over the past 3 years.

But "big" is relative. The JBoss philosophy has always been to think BIG because of who we're competing with. I can't tell you how many users, customers, and partners I've met that were amazed at our size...they thought we were much bigger due to how widely our technology is used.

I've recently traveled to two of the world's biggest cities: Tokyo and Mexico City. Normal words don't describe cities like these. They are ginormously hugantic!

My trip to Mexico City was to represent Red Hat at LinuxWorld Mexico as well as help launch our direct presence in Mexico City. There is a lot of interest in JBoss in Latin America; in particular Mexico and Brazil. I was able to spend time with some of our users building mission critical applications on JBoss Enterprise Middleware. We are just getting started in Mexico, but the excitement and interest expressed by partners, customers, and prospective customers has me pumped. Oportunidad muy grande.

My trip to Tokyo was focused on launching our JBoss business in Japan. Red Hat already has an impressive share of the Linux market in Japan, and I found big interest in JBoss Enterprise Middleware. I met with the Japan JBUG (JBoss User Group) and have begun to integrate their efforts into our localization process for our documentation and sample applications. They have done great work with JBoss AS, EJB3, JBoss Seam, JBoss jBPM, and JBoss Rules. They are indeed a motivated group. Domo arigato Japan JBUG!

While in Tokyo, I just couldn't pass up the chance to walk around the Tokyo Fish Market. This quote perfectly describes the Tsukiji market: "Tsukiji is a fish market in the sense that the Grand Canyon is a ditch". My highlight was sitting in a food stall next to the fishermen eating after their early morning shift at 8am. I ordered a bowl of sushi (and assorted raw stuff I did not recognize) and ate like a fisherman. I am glad that I do not speak Japanese, because I don't think I want to know what I actually ate...BUT it was fresh and yummy, so that's all that matters.

Anyhow, as I mentioned in my JBoss Reloaded blog, the fun has just started, and my visits to Tokyo and Mexico City have absolutely redefined what it means to "Think BIG!".