downtime.
Why is it worth watching? “Going forward, we see high availability and disaster recovery for business resiliency as key reasons why organizations will deploy virtualization software,” says John Humphreys, an IDC program director.“There is huge market appeal for technology ...that addresses both planned and unplanned downtime in virtual environments.”
How did the company get its start? The founders, who had developed Digital Equipment’s VAX FT fault-tolerant systems, created technology that lets multiple Wintel servers operate as a single fault-tolerant system. In 2003, the company implemented its technology in software.
How did the company get its name? “Marathon” was chosen because it conveys the idea of running with endurance and resiliency.
Management: CEO Gary Phillips has more than 20 years of experience in senior management for high-technology firms, including Avaki (now Sybase), Bowstreet (now IBM), BroadVision, BBN Technologies, NCR and Wang Laboratories.
Funding: $26 million in four rounds, from Atlas Venture, Longworth Capital, Presidio STX and Sierra Ventures.
Who’s using the product? MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group and Wellcome Trust, as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers and television networks.
Founded: March 2004
Headquarters: Reston,Va.
What does the company offer? Virtual Access Suite (VAS) hosted desktop and presentation virtualization infrastructure. Compatible with virtualization software from Microsoft, SWsoft,Virtual Iron,VMware and XenSource,VAS consolidates virtual application delivery and desktop deployment from those companies’ virtual machines, as well as blade PCs and Provision’s own terminal servers.
Why is it worth watching? VAS improves management and security while keeping costs in check, users say.“We needed the ability to scale our business without increasing desktop-support costs,” says Gary Parkinson, IT director with Isaac Agnew, a U.K. automobile retailer.“With over 600 network PCs across 17 retail locations, we needed to deploy new applications quickly, securely and efficiently to a standard desktop, regain control of those desktops, and turn them into simple, task-based tools. Provision helped make the deployment and control a much easier experience.”
How did the company get its start? Spun off from Emergent OnLine, one of Citrix Systems largest partners.
How did the company get its name? The founders wanted a name that suggests desktop and application provisioning.
Management: Co-founder and CEO Peter Ghostine also founded Emergent OnLine, and had been vice president of international sales and operations for V-One (now AEP Networks).
Funding: $6 million in private funding.
Who’s using the product? Aflac, Brightstar, Computer Sciences Corp., Dole Foods, Hitachi, Investools, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Xerox.
Founded: January 2003
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
What does the company offer? Scalent makes server-repur-posing software. Its Virtual Operating Environment (V/OE) provides data-center infrastructure virtualization (aka physical machine, network and storage movement), easing disaster recovery, test automation and on-demand computing requirements. It works with the AIX, Linux, Solaris, Windows,VMware ESX and Xen operating systems.
Why is it worth watching? When servers -- even virtual machines -- move, their connectivity needs to move with them, and that’s something most virtual-server vendors don’t address.V/OE addresses the physical side, remotely turning on machines and making sure they have the right network address, storage access and operating system or hypervisor booting.
How did the company get its start? The founders noticed the problems caused by manually shifting machines, cables, and network- and storage-access architectures whenever testing, disaster recovery or other changes are made.
How did the company get its name? Scalability is the challenge the company set out to solve, hence the name Scalent.
Management: Benjamin Linder, CEO, was previously with Openwave Systems and Oracle.
Funding: $37 million in three rounds, from Credit Suisse, Hummer-Winblad, JK&B Capital and Pequot Ventures.
Who’s using the product? Ameriquest, Blackboard, Carilion Health System and Wachovia.
Founded: January 2005
Location: Carlsbad, Calif.
What does the company offer? The Virtual IQ suite, for managing heterogeneous virtual-computing infrastructures.
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