Andreessen-backed Startup Targets Cloud

A new cloud computing startup funded and advised by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz plans to help enterprise companies deploy and manage applications in the cloud. webappVM is a Redwood City company building a “self-monitoring application cloud” for web applications that will provide enterprise-style app management capabilities to public and private clouds. The company is backed Shasta Ventures and Sierra Ventures as well as Andreessen and Horowitz, who recently raised $300 million to fund early-stage investments.

webappVM was previously known as OSS-1701, and was founded in May 2008 by CEO Issac Roth and CTO Tobias Kunze Briseño. Roth most recently worked as director of product management at the Wily Computing business of Computer Associates, while Briseno was a senior development manager at Lycos Europe.

Roth recently demonstrated webappVM’s technology at Sun’s CommunityOne event, describing it as “a special kind of virtual machine” that allows developers to build an app on a local machine, upload it to the cloud (in this case Sun’s OpenCloud) and immediately begin running the application with built-in management tools. ”The Virtual Data Center concept combined with a simple Compute API makes Sun Cloud a natural choice for transitioning web applications to the Cloud,” Roth said for a Sun partner testimonial. The demo video is embedded below, with the webappVM portion starting at about 4:35 into the video.

Other webappVM team members have experience at Cisco Systems, Tellme, and Juniper Networks, according to the company’s web site. “Our innovative team of engineers has developed a unique solution that enables web applications to be deployed to the cloud with full enterprise management capabilities,” the site reads. “webappVM’s product, webappVM, saves our customers time, money and headaches by facilitating efficient and flexible applications management.”

webappVM is hiring for a number of positions, including a Data Engineer.

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About Rich Miller

Rich Miller is the founder and editor-in-chief of Data Center Knowledge, and has been reporting on the data center sector since 2000. He has tracked the growing impact of high-density computing on the power and cooling of data centers, and the resulting push for improved energy efficiency in these facilities.