SpikeSource's Polese faces the heat

SpikeSource Inc. CEO Kim Polese is an industry veteran who was head of the Java team at Sun Microsystems Inc. in the 1990s and also founded "push" software company Marimba, which was eventually bought by business software company BMC Software Inc. SpikeSource helps companies put together open source software stacks by testing and configuring open-source components. It is increasingly feeling competitive heat from big companies like Oracle Inc. and IBM Corp., which are offering Linux services and support, as well as from smaller companies specializing in open-source applications and components.

In this interview, Polese discusses how SpikeSource competes with big companies, how it cooperates with other open-source players, and whether or not SpikeSource is looking to be acquired or go public.