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SOA & WOA: Article

Java and SOA Consolidation Comes to Covalent

Besides commercial Apache support, Covalent also sells WSO2 Web Services Application Server
By Maureen O'Gara
Article Rating:
February 2, 2008 06:45 AM EST
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 8,047
Read also: Original Founder of Covalent Sets Record Straight

Three-year-old SpringSource (née Interface21) has bought 10-year-old Covalent Technologies on undisclosed terms believed to involve stock.

SpringSource, as the company's new name indicates, does work on Spring and Covalent supports 400 users - reportedly including 50% of the Fortune 500 and 20% of the Global 2000 - of the famed Apache Software Foundation's open source projects - the "A" in LAMP - and so - with Sun paying a billion dollars for the "M" in LAMP - it's supposed to be a marriage made in heaven.

They want to be a single source for Spring and its own Spring Framework for Java and stuff like the Apache Tomcat application server and Apache HTTP. Tomcat, they say, is used in production in 64% of enterprises worldwide and Spring is popular with Tomcat users or vice versa and there's shift happening that's pushing people to use the simpler, lighter weight, more modular technologies rather than legacy Java EE that IBM, BEA, Oracle and JBoss peddle - especially JBoss.

Covalent CEO Mark Brewer will become general manager of SpringSource's new Covalent business unit. SpringSource, which claims a thousand customers of its own and wants to be the leading Java open source/middleware house, expects to leverage Covalent's global support.

The joint company is pledged to contribute heavily to open source Apache projects.

Besides commercial Apache support, Covalent, whose founders helped develop the hysterically successful Apache HTTP Web Server, also sell enterprise subscription to its own Enterprise Ready Server, Hyperic HQ monitoring, Terracotta Java clustering and the WSO2 Web Services Application Server.

SpringSource picked up a $10 million A round check from Benchmark Capital last year.

Published February 2, 2008 – Reads 8,047
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025.

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Most Recent Comments
Randy Terbush Covalent CEO 02/04/08 09:16:20 AM EST

Maureen,

I've bit my tongue on the many inaccuracies reported about "Covalent" over the past 5 years, but your article and the quote "Besides commercial Apache support, Covalent, whose founders helped develop the hysterically successful Apache HTTP Web Server..." motivates me to correct the misinformation.

I am the founder of Covalent. The company was started in 1994, long before it adopted the name of Covalent in 1996. I was forced out of the company by the CEO (who I had hired as my replacement in 2000) in 2003. I was kicked out of the company that I had given 9 years of my life because I was fighting to preserve the business model of support for the Apache HTTP server and other Apache Open Source products. It cost me a month's salary in attorney fees to get 6 months severance from a company that I had given easily 3 times the amount of time as the next nearest employee's tenure.

In 2005, the CEO John Jack (now CEO of Fortify) ran the Covalent that I had founded into bankruptcy. The ensuing fire sale enabled the VP of Sales to purchase the Covalent name and customer list, while the offtrack technology was purchased by the founders of Hyperic.

The stock held by myself and the many other people that gave me their commitment in the years following our first venture funding in 2000 was flushed. The New Covalent then went back to the business of supporting the Apache Open Source components. The same business model I had lost my dream fighting for.

There are no Apache group "founders" left in Covalent. Certainly some of the developers that came to a successful Apache Software Foundation after it had found success, but the claims of "the founders of Covalent being founders of Apache" are completely false.

Perhaps there are a few sour grapes in my position regarding this company calling themselves "Covalent". But from the perspective of myself and the many other people that made many sacrifices to help build a company that provided Apache Open Source support, the success of the "New Covalent" is on the backs or our sacrifice.

Thanks for reading

-Randy
Covalent News Desk 02/02/08 06:37:47 AM EST

Besides commercial Apache support, Covalent, whose founders helped develop the hysterically successful Apache HTTP Web Server, also sell enterprise subscription to its own Enterprise Ready Server, Hyperic HQ monitoring, Terracotta Java clustering and the WSO2 Web Services Application Server. SpringSource picked up a $10 million A round check from Benchmark Capital last year.