BlueStripe News

09/08/2008 | BlueStripe Unveils Industry's First Solution Dedicated to Bringing World-Class ASM to Virtual Data Centers

BlueStripe, founded by systems management professionals from Wily Technology and IBM/Tivoli, emerges from stealth mode to solve the “next big problem” in application management

RTP, N.C. – September 8, 2008 – BlueStripe Software, the only provider of APM 2.0 solutions for virtualized data center environments, today announced the official launch of operations and its first commercial product, FactFinder. FactFinder is the industry’s only application management software to enable enterprises to stage, deploy, and manage business-critical applications in virtual data center environments with the same degree of confidence and control as traditional environments.

FactFinder gives IT departments the visibility they need to efficiently manage application performance and availability in virtualized data center environments by mapping physical and virtual environments for a thorough understanding of applications and their interdependencies.  (See Release: BlueStripe Software Introduces Industry’s First Application Service Management Solution for Virtualized Data Center Environments)

“The next phase in virtualization adoption will necessitate insight and intelligence at the application level – and even more importantly at the business service level,” said John Humphreys, program vice president in IDC’s Enterprise Platform Group. “By connecting the ability to monitor business services to the infrastructure control afforded to customers via virtualization, BlueStripe is closing the feedback loop and enabling customers to actively manage service levels via insight into the applications and control of the virtualized infrastructure.”

Enabling Virtualization with Application Service Management
While virtualization has received an enormous amount of publicity, few organizations today deploy business critical applications in virtualized environments. The reason for this is simple: no management tools exist today that enable IT staff to guarantee the performance and reliability demanded by these applications.

This problem has impeded the progress of virtualization in the data center because enterprises have typically only deployed virtualized servers to support non-critical systems. This trend is validated by research firm IDC, which estimates that fewer than 10 percent of data centers are currently virtualized.1 FactFinder, the first in a suite of application service management tools from BlueStripe that enables organizations to confidently deploy business critical applications in virtualized environments, was built in partnership with virtualization industry leader, VMware.

“The move to virtual environments has created a major shift in IT requirements on how to roll-out and manage business applications,” said Chris Neal, founder and CEO of BlueStripe Software. “The applications team, along with IT Operations, requires insight into the all the facts regarding their mission-critical applications. Our founding team at BlueStripe played a major role in solving the application management problems brought about by the advent of client/server and Internet-based computing. Now, our mission is to improve the way companies manage applications and we’re solving the next big problem – application service management across all servers, both physical and virtual.”

“We have seen the potential benefits of virtualization dissipated by ineffective management tools – especially silo-based tools that prevent quality service delivery, directly extend downtime and other problems,” said Andi Mann, research director, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). “Therefore, integrated performance management is one key management technology that drives straight to the heart of many virtualization goals, and overcomes the significant problems of silo-based management. BlueStripe connects the pieces intelligently, providing a holistic view to improve application management.”

Experienced Management Team and Founders Leading Company
BlueStripe is led by a seasoned executive team that has built some of the industry’s leading enterprise application management companies, including Wily Technology, Relicore, Computer Associates, and IBM/Tivoli:

• Chris Neal, CEO, has over 14 years of enterprise software leadership experience, including positions at NetDynamics, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems. Prior to BlueStripe, he was vice president of field operations for the Americas at Wily Technology, a provider of enterprise application management solutions.
• Vic Nyman, COO, has over twenty years of enterprise software experience in various leadership and executive roles, including positions at IBM/Tivoli and Wily Technology. Prior to BlueStripe, he was Chairman and CEO of Relicore, an application change and configuration management company which was acquired by Symantec.
• John Bley, Chief Architect, was a principal engineer at Wily Technology and one of the key individuals responsible for the core Wily product architecture.
• John Whittington, vice president of business development, has over 15 years of enterprise software sales and business development experience.

World-Class Investors

BlueStripe is backed by world-class venture investors, including Trinity Ventures. Noel Fenton, the founder of Trinity Ventures, is also a member of BlueStripe’s board of directors. BlueStripe Software will be exhibiting at VMworld 2008 (booth #347), September 15-18, in Las Vegas. Press and industry analysts interested in meeting with BlueStripe Software should contact BlueStripe to schedule a briefing.

About BlueStripe Software

BlueStripe Software provides the only Application Performance Management solution that gives IT Organizations the visibility into exactly what IT components make up important business applications, where the application transactions go in those systems, exactly where transactions are spending time and why.  BlueStripe’s flagship application management product, FactFinder, provides 24x7 application monitoring and problem management for important production applications across any application architecture, across any server platform: physical, virtual or cloud.

Based in the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area of N.C., BlueStripe is led by an executive team that has built some of the industry’s leading enterprise application management companies, including Wily Technology, Computer Associates, Cisco and IBM/Tivoli. For additional information, please visit http://bluestripe.com.

¹ _{IDC, “Worldwide Virtualization Services 2007-2011 Forecast,” #206724, May 2007.}

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