Data center startup Azul Systems. has finally named its first customer: hotel bookings company Pegasus Solutions Inc., although its other early adopters (and its funding) remain shrouded in mystery (see Pegasus Chooses Azul).
Azul offers the Compute Appliance, a device that offloads server processing of Java applications. But even though it claims disruptive technology, lack of customer credibility has been cited as a major hurdle for the startup (see Azul to Launch Virtual Java Box).
Now that may change. Shahin Khan, Azuls chief marketing officer, says the company now has a healthy double-digit number of engagements with some very big names." Although Khan would not provide those names, he says they are in the likes of financial services, telecom, travel, entertainment, transportation, and the automotive industries. In the coming months, more will be revealed.
Khan would not reveal the value of Azuls deal with Pegasus, nor would he confirm how many Compute Appliances the company is using to support its 60,000 client hotels.
Some of Azul's reticence could be owing to users being publicity-shy about their adoption of new technologies. The company's gear certainly qualifies: Traditionally, IT has added additional processing capacity to servers to cope with peaks and troughs when dealing with Java-based applications. However, Azul now redirects these workloads to its devices, freeing up data center servers (see Azul Attacks Data Center Apps, Azul Unveils Compute Appliances, and Building Virtual Empires).
