Start-Up Curl Promises Rich Apps That Don't Bog Down The Network

Curl, launched in 1998 out of an MIT research project, recently shipped its Client Web Platform, on which solution providers can build applications that are executed by client machines, said Jon London, Curl's director of marketing.

As the industry moves from client-based to Web-based applications, performance has suffered, London said. Curl solves this problem because while applications built on the Curl Client Web Platform originate via the Web infrastructure, once they reach the client they run from there, he said.

This provides the application with "centralized administration and full utilization of the machine," said London. The application code still sits in the app server, so it doesn't hog client memory; only the Curl platform is installed on the client machine, he said.

The Client Web Platform currently runs only on Windows clients but is "neutral" with respect to server technology in a network's infrastructure, said David Kranz, Curl's founder and chief architect. "[Curl's platform is completely complementary to every application server," Kranz said.

Currently, 18 systems integrators have committed to building applications using the Curl Client Web Platform, said John Capobianco, Curl's executive vice president of planning.

"We see this partnering strategy as hugely important," Capobianco said. "We've dedicated a whole piece of our sales force to making sure we've got systems integrators lined up."

Capobianco is no stranger to helping vendors plan product and partner strategies. He formerly served as a strategic planning executive at J2EE-based app server vendor Bluestone Software, which worked closely with solution providers. Hewlett-Packard acquired Bluestone in late 2000 but has since discontinued its product line.

A channel program for Curl's Client Web Platform is in the works, and the vendor will probably sign up a distributor to handle sales to resellers, said Capobianco.

Solution providers familiar with the Curl platform cite performance as its key value proposition when it comes to building Web-based applications.

Sonjaya Tandon, CTO of San Diego-based solution provider Dataskill, used the Curl platform to build an insurance-company application that allowed multiple users to share data for performing analysis.

Dataskill did a proof of concept using a Java-based client interface but used the Curl platform for the implementation because "it outperformed our proof of concept," Tandon said.

"When I was doing this [project in Java, I was never able to maintain workable applets. The download times were a killer," he said.

Tandon said building the application using the Client Web Platform also saved him the hassle of figuring out the different compatibilities between Web browsers and Java runtimes. "I didn't have that problem with Curl," he said. "That, coupled with [Curl's performance, was a big deal."

Along with performance, the presentation of data in applications using Curl is a big selling point, said Brian Phelps, president of Burlington, Mass.-based custom software developer Vested Development.

"It's the first platform we've seen come along that fulfills the mission of developing code one time and having it appear to the end user to have the exact same user interface when it's in a disconnected Windows environment or in a Web browser-based environment," he said.