mValent

Founded: December 2002

Headquarters: Waltham, Massachusetts.

What it offers: The Integrity software tool for capturing and mapping application infrastructure requirements. Integrity models how specific apps use Web, application and database servers. The captured information gives IT the data it needs to tweak the applications for hardware, or vice versa.

Why we like it: Configuration management is key for optimal performance. Automating the detection of changes while modeling the configuration necessary for an ideal application state speeds the process of implementing new application environments. Since we profiled it in June, mValent has deepened its partnership with HP. It announced support for Opsware and HP Universal CMBD. Both will resell each others' products and the integration of Integrity with HP's products means users can add application automation to HP server, network and storage automation wares.

How it got its start: While working at Inktomi, Swapnil Shah, founder and chief strategy officer, saw the need to automate tasks associated with the application layer -- to help IT staff stop spending so much time and money on maintaining the status quo and move their organizations ahead. The company name plays off the chemistry term "valency," which is a measure of the number of chemical bonds formed by the atoms of an element. MValent, representatives say, reflects the stabilizing effect on an IT infrastructure when configuration management automation is applied.

Management: Shah founded the company with James Tauber, known as one of the creators of XML. Tauber is chief scientist. Joe Forgione, president and CEO, is formerly a vice president for Novell and CEO of Eprise.

Funding: US$20 million from Polaris Venture Partners, IDG Ventures and Charles River Ventures.

Who uses the product: Berlex, Circuit City Stores, National Grid, Pearson Education, Sandia National Laboratories and State Street, among others.

Interesting fact: mValent was featured at Demo 2004, a Network World conference that showcases unique emerging technology.

NewStep Networks

Founded: January 2003

Headquarters: Toronto

What it offers: The Converged Services Node and other products that perform fixed mobile convergence (FMC). Comprising hardware and software, the company's systems offer a session brokering function that allows a call on a single device (such as a cell phone) to be handed off to Wi-Fi or vice versa. A call also can be transferred to a different device on a different network, for instance, linking traditional PBX calls to Wi-Fi handsets.

Why we like it: FMC allows companies to treat mobile phones like PBX extensions. NewStep gear expands connections to IP phones, softphones and other handheld devices, as well as traditional phones, without requiring a forklift of current hardware. Plus, NewStep says it supports Microsoft Live Communications Server, which means it doesn't simply route calls, but helps provide presence information for Microsoft Unified Communications shops. Since we first profiled the company in January, NewStep has been testing interoperability on a long list of technologies. These include tests of Code Division Multiple Access/Wi-Fi handsets with Kyocera Wireless, GSM/Wi-Fi handsets with Paragon Wireless, Linux handsets tests with E28, and dual- and multi-mode handsets with Hellosoft. It also has proved interoperability with IP PBXs from Asterisk, Avaya and Cisco.