Scott McNealy, the legendary chairman and co-founder of Sun Microsystems is optimistic on the growth of the Internet and believes the dotcom burst is a thing of the past.

The man known for his passion for spreading the Open Source community, believes that the real growth of Internet is happening, with an average two million new users joining everyday.

The worldwide web is recording electronic transactions of over $228 billion, deploying ERP, CRM and Web 2.0 technologies, while the use of mails, blogs and instant messengers are on the rise, McNealy said in his keynote address at the Sun Technovate 2007 in Mumbai on Thursday.

In his address, titled 'Competing in the Participation Age', the 52-year-old chairman added that there was much more to do for the sector. Of the world's total population of over 6 billion, a majority (three-fourths) still does not connect to the IT network.

McNealy is both optimistic and pessimistic on technology. "Technology has only the shelf-life of a banana. It becomes obsolete the moment you install it, and then you will have go for the next version. This is both the beauty and tragedy of Moore's Law," he said.

One of the concern areas for companies is the increasing levels of energy consumption. "Almost 40 per cent of cost of setting up a data centre goes into paying electricity bills. More than 50 per cent of power is lost in transmission cost. We need to build best breed data centres," he urged. 

Taking a dig at propriety technology, McNealy said there was need to reduce complexity and cutting down barriers of entry and exit, which can only be achieved through Open Source.

A company spokesperson said India and China were two markets very important for Sun's business, especially when it has been facing tough time in increasing revenues back home in the US. McNealy will be going to Bangalore to meet the customers.

The $13-billion technology company spends close to $2 billion per annum on R&D and employs 34,600 people globally.

The company has presence in over 100 countries, with India being one of the biggest with around 1,400 software engineers.