Consolidation is under way in the high-performance Linux software market.
On Tuesday, Linux hardware company Penguin Computing announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Scyld Computing, maker of the Linux-based Beowulf clustering software.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both companies are privately held. The combined entity will have 32 employees, executives said.
Penguin Computing, San Francisco, was founded in 1998 and since its inception has manufactured dedicated high-end Linux clustering servers based on Intel or Advanced Micro Devices processors. It has not had a channel program to date.
Scyld Computing, Annapolis, Md., develops Beowulf cluster management software and counts Hewlett-Packard among its reseller partners.
Sam Ockman, Penguin's founder, will lead the combined entity as president and CEO. Donald Becker, the founder of Scyld and key developer of the Beowulf software technology, will serve as CTO.
The marriage will give customers a choice of configurable server building blocks, cluster management software and a wide range of technical consulting services, Penguin said.
The company said the combined entity has more than 3,000 corporate customers, many of which are in the Fortune 500 and federal government spaces.
While the combined hardware and software company tackles complex, computationally intensive problems, customers want ease of use and solutions that are simple to deploy, Ockman said.
"Corporate customers want ease of use," he said in a brief interview with CRN. "The corporate world cares much more about something that works out of the box and is easy to maintain and use."
The marriage will give Penguin, primarily a direct-sales company, access to Scyld's partner channel. In particular, Penguin said it aims to enlist Scyld solution providers that target specific markets.
"We've been a very direct company but have some channel partners with federal government accounts," Ockman said. "We're going to continue working with those partners to sell the software and [we'll be looking for] opportunities to find new resellers for Beowulf clusters that have specific vertical experience."
One vendor in the Linux cluster market said Penguin is jumping into territory dominated by IBM, Dell Computer and RackSaver, as well as specialized vendors such as Microway and Aspen Technologies.
"It doesn't bother me at all, as a competitor," said Stephen Fried, co-founder, president and CTO of Microway, a Plymouth, Mass., vendor in the high-performance computing market. "Penguin is just getting into it now. We're in a different league. We rarely sell Scyld anymore."
