F5 Labs Inc. was named after the Force 5 winds of a tornado, and
the company is indeed taking its market by storm.
As rapidly growing numbers of users threaten to swamp some of the
most popular Internet sites, F5's Big IP system can act like a
traffic cop at a clogged intersection, steering the users to
different computer servers.
That's quickly made the 2-year-old Seattle company popular with
operators of busy Web sites, among them Microsoft Corp., NationsBanc
Montgomery Securities Inc., Bear Stearns & Co., PSINet Inc.,
RealNetworks Inc., and Tower Records.
With its first six months of sales coming in at $1.5 million, the
company is looking to zoom to $20 million in sales this year, said
Steve Goldman, vice president for sales and marketing.
"We were at a $5 million run rate by the end of the year, and we
plan to quadruple that this year," he said, adding that sales only
started in July 1997. "We're riding the whole Internet wave."
The Big IP hardware and software enable many less-expensive
computer servers to function like one giant machine. By handling
traffic this way, companies can avoid spending $100,000 for the most
powerful computer servers, instead paying $10,000 for Big IP and
buying a string of smaller, much cheaper computers.
With Internet traffic climbing at tremendous rates, especially at
popular sites and from companies setting up intranets, F5 Labs is
well positioned for explosive growth. The company's impressive
customer list, which includes many top Internet companies and sites,
has signed on with virtually no marketing from F5.
"Companies are investing huge amounts of time and energy to get
content on the Web and build commerce sites," said Goldman. "One
hundred percent uptime is crucial. If you're trying to reach someone
and you get a busy signal, you're not going to think about them
again."
One happy customer is Denver-based MapQuest, which gets about 2.5
million visitors daily to its Web site. The company uses F5's system
to distribute that traffic among its 30 high-end Unix servers, and
MapQuest manager of engineering Marc Haverland gives Big IP high
marks.
"It does exactly what it's supposed to do all the time," he said.
"I love it. It has allowed us to grow our site to meet increased
demand, and does it transparently to anyone on the outside. I think
they'll be a very successful operation."
F5 Labs' biggest competitor is Cisco Systems Inc., said Goldman.
"They have a product, but they really don't focus on it and their
technology is mediocre," he said. "We've run up against them 58
percent of the time and won the bid 100 percent. So the real
challenge is just getting the word out."
F5 Labs' largest problem today is keeping up with all the
potential business. To help fund its rapid growth, the company
recently raised $2.3 million in a second round of funding from
Encompass Ventures of Kirkland and Britannia Holdings, based in
Britain's Channel Islands.
"These guys were a sleeper company for a while," said Craig
McCallum, a partner at Encompass. "They didn't have one of the real
sexy products, and a year ago a lot of people had trouble
understanding what their solution was."
The company now has 40 people, that number is expected to climb to
at least 75 this year, Goldman said. Most of the open positions are
for engineers. |
