InformationWeek's Cloud Computing Destination

More Cloud Computing Startups

The list of emerging companies with cloud services and infrastructure products keeps growing. Since we compiled InformationWeek's guide to 20 Cloud Computing Startups in September, eight more have drifted in.

Some of these are new companies with a focus on the cloud, while others have been around a few years and are adapting to the cloud model. Following is a synopsis of the newbies.

Arista Networks (2004). Makes a line of 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches and a network operating system for managing and provisioning those switches. With a focus on the network infrastructure for cloud environments, Arista has trademarked the term "cloud networking." (See my earlier post on Arista Networks here.)

DataSisar (2008). Based in Bangalore, India, DataSisar provides software design and development, application consulting, virtualization services, and help with software-as-a-service implementations. "We work on all the layers of data management by stacking and configuring the software that's suitable to your business processes on the cloud infrastructure at subscriptions prices," the company says.

rPath (2005). With its roots in virtualization, rPath recently introduced a cloud computing "adoption model," which the company describes as a pragmatic, five-step approach to cloud computing. The model begins with virtualization and progresses through experimentation, foundation, advancement, and actualization.

Soasta (2006). Developer of a Web application testing service called CloudTest that can be used for load and performance testing in Amazon EC2 and other cloud services. Soasta provides virtual software testing to cloud vendors RightScale and Skytap.

Sonoa Systems (2004). Bolsters the security, compliance, and scalability of cloud services and applications via its cloud gateway, a virtual appliance for policy enforcement. Online workspace provider IntraLinks is a new customer.

StrikeIron (2003). Offers "data as a service." StrikeIron's Web services marketplace can be used to integrate business and Web data, SaaS, and other data sources. Recently introduced IronCloud, which it describes as a Web services delivery platform.

Univa UD (2004). Makes a product called Reliance that provides automated SLA provisioning in data centers. It's underlying technology for private clouds.

Wolf (2006). Another Bangalore startup, Wolf offers a platform as a service for building SaaS-style business applications. The company recently released its Web application development framework for beta testing.

That brings my tally of cloud startups to 28 and counting. I'm thinking about compiling an updated cloud startup directory. What others should be on the list?