Intel Opens Wallet for Open Source Startup
Intel Opens Wallet for Open Source Startup
June 12th, 2006: An open-source web services startup, WSO2, has raised U.S.$4 million in capital from Intel and along with it, the perception of open-source companies as viable businesses.
Intel is WSO2’s sole investor at present. While it has a history of investing in open-source startups such as MySQL, JBoss and Zend Technologies, Intel’s willingness to take a bet on WSO2 is an important boost to the idea of profitable open-source based business. Not to mention an indicator that the industry is increasingly moving towards a service orientated architecture (SOA).
Keeping in line with this model, WSO2 will give away its middleware products, and charge for support and services.
WSO2’s first product, Tungsten is an application server based on XML and web services that is built from scratch to support SOA. It can be added to JBoss Apllication Server or Apache Tomcat to improve support for XML.
“The idea is to be an XML and web services company using the Apache license,” Sanjiva Weerawarana, WSO2 CEO told RedHerring.com. “The Apache license is an open-source license authored by the Apache Foundation, which also manages the popular Apache HTTP server, a very popular web server for Unix-like systems, Windows, and other platforms.”
With Red Hat picking up JBoss earlier this year for U.S.$420 million, and now Intel investing in WSO2, open-source startups are increasingly falling under the gaze of venture capitalists like many dot coms did before in the glory days before the crash. However, WSO2 believes it has something solid and viable to offer.
“Most of the middleware products that are around today are from the ’90s, and companies that are selling them are just taking those old products, putting some lipstick on them and giving them to customers,” says Weerawarana. “We want to offer a fresh approach to middleware.”
Comment on this story
Related Article: