20090623 Millions More in Funding for Free Software
From s5h.net
Reductive Labs, Moving to Portland, Raises $2M for Open Source IT Automation
Portland, OR, is gaining an interesting new software company—and this one comes with its own venture funding. Reductive Labs, an open-source startup that helps companies automate their IT management, announced today it has raised $2 million in Series A financing led by True Ventures in Palo Alto, CA. True Ventures put in $1.75 million, and private investors pitched in the remaining $250,000. The deal closed earlier this month, according to Reductive Labs co-founder Andrew Shafer. [...] Puppet is free to use, and Reductive Labs sells support for customers if they want it. “We tend to do business with people with very large operations. They’re the ones who really feel a need for this kind of automation,” says Shafer. “We are classic open source—we have service, training, and support contracts.”
Recent
Lucid Imagination scares up funds for open-source search software
Lucid Imagination, maker of open-source search software tailored to enterprise applications, has added undisclosed funds from In-Q-Tel to its first round of capital. It had previously raised $6 million in the round from Granite Ventures and Walden International, according to VentureWire.
http://venturebeat.com/2009/06/18/lucid-imagination-scares-up-funds-for-open-source-search-software/
In-Q-Tel embraces open-source search
Lucid, of San Mateo, Calif., will use the funding to develop applications around Lucene and Solr and build the infrastructure to support customers in the intelligence community. The amount of funding from In-Q-Tel was not disclosed. Since September 2008, Lucid has raised $6.2 million in venture capital, including the money from In-Q-Tel.
http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2009/06/17/in-q-tel-invests-in-open-source.aspx
CIA's Technology Arm Taps Open Source for Enterprise Search
The company in charge of providing technology to the U.S. intelligence community has invested in an open-source firm to provide enterprise-search technology to the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
CIA Invests in Open Source Lucene, Solr Search http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/cia-invests-in-open-source-lucene-solr-search-004830.php
Recession and FOSS
The key to promote Linux effectively not only lies with Linux enthusiasts but also with Open Source vendors who are yet to find out a way in which it can be monetized efficiently to expand recognition amongst its probable user base. [...] An Open Source product or service will be able to get buyers who are bereft of major cash inflows and the business operations shall hence continue successfully. The best thing that could happen to Linux is its emergence as the top alternative to Microsoft. Open Source tools such as PostgreSQL, Ruby, Perl, Python, and Ubuntu etc. can be used as a substitute to do most work that Microsoft does, of course with a difference in terms of use, installation, features and support. This will probably be of tremendous help to FOSS in retaining its “free aspect” USP.
http://brajeshwar.com/2009/recession-and-foss/
Red Hat Gets Boost From Tighter IT Budgets
Linux distributor Red Hat is seeing increased demand for its products even as the recession forces many companies to slash their IT budgets, said Red Hat CEO James Whitehurst.
Novell Identity Management