Loudcloud Inc. assembled partners and customers in New York on Tuesday to offer a glimpse of the Internet infrastructure provider's upgraded Opsware technology and new multiarchitecture, data-exchange Smart Cloud service.
Opsware 2i builds on the traditional Opsware automated monthly service model by extending Loudcloud infrastructure managed outsourcing to customer-owned and third-party datacenters, said Ben Horowitz, CEO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Loudcloud. The automated subscription-based service is still in beta-testing mode, Horowitz said.
Intended to take advantage of the plethora of corporate datacenters in existence and operated outside of a third-party co-location facility, Opsware 2i will plug users and their Web site operations into Loudcloud's Network Operations Center. Opsware software and technology upgrades will be instantly transferred to customer's managed Internet sites.
Opsware 2i also features beefed-up disaster-recovery measures.
According to Horowitz, Loudcloud's Integration Smart Cloud service will help enable the real-time transfer of data between different types of computing platforms, helping customers get a better handle of existing applications that must be extended as e-business pushes systems to new limits.
"[A customer's] challenge is not how do I run SAP. The challenge is how do I integrate SAP with other applications," Horowitz said.
Based on message-queuing, the new service will support BEA Systems Inc., Tibco Software Inc., and webMethods Corp. technology.
Loudcloud also announced on Tuesday a partnership with iFormation Group that will enable Loudcloud enterprise customers to have access to iFormation's business-building expertise, and in turn make Loudcloud's Internet outsourcing service available to iFormation's newly created partner companies. iFormation, which aligns itself with companies to create, develop, and launch new businesses that draw on the parent company's strengths, was formed last summer between Boston Consulting Group, General Atlantic Partners, and Goldman Sachs.