Who’s On Phirst

AUSTIN, Texas — July 21, 2008 — Phurnace Software, Inc., the Java application deployment company, today announced that it has completed its $5 million Series A financing, led by S3 Ventures, a Texas-based venture capital firm. Previous investors, including DFJ Mercury, also participated in the financing. The capital will be used by Phurnace to expand sales, marketing and development activities for its patent-pending deployment automation products.

The company provides IT operations staff with data center automation tools to dramatically reduce application deployment times, decrease configuration errors, lower costs and enable more efficient enterprise Java deployments. The company’s flagship product, Phurnace Deliver™, is used by some of the country’s largest companies in multiple vertical markets. It supports deployments and automated configurations on the leading web application server platforms, including IBM WebSphere®, BEA WebLogic® and RedHat JBoss™. The company has also recently announced automated deployment support for IBM WebSphere® Portal.

“S3 invests in companies with innovative technology, a compelling measurable value proposition and significant customer traction,” said Brian R. Smith, Managing Director at S3 Ventures. He continued, “Phurnace’s products address a clear need in the marketplace, as evidenced by its use among Fortune 500 companies, and we are looking forward to helping them expand their rapidly growing business.”

“The fit was strong between Phurnace and S3 Ventures because we both see how data center automation is top-of-mind in enterprise IT departments. S3 sees the large investment opportunity in the data center and Phurnace has created a powerful solution to reduce headaches and costs there,” stated Larry Warnock, President and CEO of Phurnace Software. He continued, “Companies continue to invest inordinate amounts of time and effort into scripts and manual processes where automation is a much better approach. The value of using Phurnace Deliver™ can be seen immediately after its installation.”

System administrators and Java developers use Phurnace’s technology to reduce errors, save time and eliminate the need for hard-to-maintain scripting while configuring web application servers. The use of Phurnace software results in a significantly more efficient deployment process which can be shortened from weeks to minutes. The agent-less architecture of Phurnace Deliver™ fits into companies’ existing data center processes and the command line interface (CLI) option allows for direct integration to software build and operation toolsets such as HP Server Automation®, IBM Rational®, IBM Tivoli® and BMC BladeLogic™.

About Phurnace Software, Inc. Phurnace creates software that troubleshoots configuration problems and accelerates deployments of Java EE applications. It eliminates the error-prone, repetitive processes and headaches associated with troubleshooting, configuring and migrating of software running on web application servers -- regardless of vendor or version. System administrators and developers use Phurnace to eliminate errors, save time and reduce overall deployment costs. www.phurnace.com.

About S3 Ventures S3 Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in companies which address large market opportunities in the information technology and medical device sectors. We invest primarily around the Southwest with a focus on Texas. Our offices are located in Austin and Houston. S3’s team is a group of seasoned investors and successful entrepreneurs who have repeatedly built companies into great returns for investors. At S3 today, we help talented entrepreneurs take their technology and market knowledge and form valuable businesses in a methodical fashion. For more information about S3, visit http://www.s3vc.com/.

Phurnace and the Phurnace flame logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Phurnace Software, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other names are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

###

In phurnace
Comment (0) Read More...

As you may, but probably don't know, Phurnace got some Phunding. The management team put in countless hours over the last several months and the process was apparently fraught with twists and turns that would give Gordias pause. Thankfully, our fearless leaders didn't share with us each and every bump in the road. Even more thankfully they didn't share with us those moments, of which I'm sure there were a few, when the road disappeared altogether. I'm a lot like Bill Paxton's character in 'Aliens': I talk a good game and will bust my butt until the bitter end, but am real quick to loudly proclaim "Game Over, man!" when things don't go as planned. Knowing too much would give me fits.

When it comes to spending someone else's money, I think a lot of software companies screw up by making financial choices like the Lohans' make parenting decisions. Instead of worrying about their employee's productivity and professional growth, they want their employees to think their job is cool. Instead of laying the groundwork for long term success, they try to compete with the outrageous perks offered by companies like Google. Don't get me wrong. Fully stocked break rooms, expensive chairs, and ping pong tables are nice. And even though I'm as pale as they come and have a history of skin cancer, I love a good beer bash on a party barge just as much as the next guy. But I would not trade quality hardware or capable new co-workers for any of these fleeting perks. Good employees don't join a company for the parties or bottomless soft drinks. They join a company because they believe in it's products, are optimistic about the company's success, or are intrigued by the professional growth it offers them. The ones that get caught up in the perks are usually the first ones to leave when something new comes along or complain when the company hits leaner times and has to cut back on the cool stuff so they can make payroll.

The culture here is based on honesty and openness. So while the nitty-gritty of start-up funding wasn't revealed to us there has been a lot of discussion of the funding process. The chickens were never counted before they hatched, but we sure did make a lot of plans for exactly how we were going to count those chickens and what we were going to buy with our new found...poultry. O.K. I think I've lost control of the hatching chicken metaphor. Anyway, during these discussions on what was to be done with the funding it became clear to me how much different Phurnace is than some of the other start-ups I've worked at. The coolest thing about this company is that everyone here seems to be in agreement with the long-term plan. By opening up discussion of business decisions to all of us, it's easier for us to see, appreciate, and contribute to the company's growth and success. It's also striking that everyone can now rest assured that a dime is not spent without tracing it back to a concrete benefit for the company. We are making quality hires and investing in an infrastructure that will optimize productivity and yield solid deployment solutions that we can not only sell, but also take pride in. And isn't building something new and cool what working at a startup is all about?

In phurnace
Comment (0) Read More...

BBC has a news report on how boring tasks can lead to errors and omissions. Evidently, your brain will go into 'autopilot' mode when performing redundant, boring tasks. Apparently, there is a specific bit of brain activity that can occur right before you are about to make a mistake.

Until they can make a portable MRI for data centers that will catch that brain activity, may we suggest Phurnace Deliver to simply get rid of your dull and boring tasks along with your errors?

In Tips, phurnace, java, deliver
Comment (0) Read More...