SpringSource Acquisition of Hyperic, Inc. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

General FAQs
Customers and Sales FAQs
Partner FAQs
Company Integration FAQs

General FAQs

What is being announced?

SpringSource has acquired substantially all of the assets of Hyperic, the leading open source provider of application management and monitoring software. With the acquisition, SpringSource offers a comprehensive product set for powering the entire Java application lifecycle, with lean and powerful solutions for building, running and managing enterprise applications. By accelerating and unifying the lifecycle from developer to data center and bridging the divide between development and IT operations teams, SpringSource can meet all the needs of companies building and deploying business critical Java applications. In connection with the transaction, Hyperic's employees will become employees of SpringSource.

Why does this announcement make sense?

SpringSource has revolutionized how enterprise Java applications are built and run with Spring, Groovy, Grails and Tomcat and is expanding that revolution from the developer to the datacenter. The addition of Hyperic enables SpringSource to provide a comprehensive product set that accelerates the build, run, manage application lifecycle: from high productivity developer tools and frameworks, to lightweight application server runtimes, to complete application and infrastructure management.

Founded in 2003, SpringSource employs the open source leaders who created and continue to drive innovation for Spring, the de facto standard programming model for enterprise Java applications. By acquiring Covalent in early 2008, SpringSource added the world’s most popular Web application runtime environments, Apache Tomcat and Apache HTTP Server, to its technology footprint, and expanded its Java and Web thought leadership team with experts from those open source communities. At the end of 2008, SpringSource acquired G2One and added dynamic language and rapid Web application technology along with the thought leaders from the Groovy and Grails open source communities.

The acquisition of Hyperic technology rounds out our strategy by adding the leading open source provider of web application management and monitoring software. Looking at the Covalent, G2One, and Hyperic acquisitions collectively along with continued innovation with Spring Integration, Spring Batch, SpringSource dm Server, SpringSource Tool Suite and SpringSource Application Management Suite, SpringSource has clearly established itself as the enterprise Java leader focused on reducing cost and complexity and increasing productivity and quality from the developer to the datacenter.

Can you provide an overview of SpringSource?

SpringSource provides a complete suite of software products that accelerate the entire build, run, manage application lifecycle. SpringSource, its employees, and a massive open source community are the source of innovations transforming the enterprise Java software market. The company forges open source innovation into software products for the most demanding enterprise deployments.

SpringSource is at the forefront of rapid enterprise adoption of "lean software" that dramatically cuts cost and complexity, increases productivity, and accelerates the delivery of high-quality, business-critical applications. SpringSource’s product offerings include:

SpringSource Enterprise: A certified and supported version of Spring, the de facto standard programming model for enterprise Java, that is fully instrumented for detailed insight into health and performance of Spring applications and includes performance and reliability optimizations for Oracle Database environments.
Groovy and Grails: Grails is a rapid web application development framework built on Spring and based on Groovy, a powerful dynamic language that seamlessly integrates with Java.
SpringSource Tool Suite: The best and most complete set of Eclipse-based tools for creating Spring applications and next-generation OSGI-enabled applications.
SpringSource tc Server: A certified version of Apache Tomcat hardened for enterprise use and coupled with key operational capabilities, advanced diagnostics and mission-critical support.
SpringSource dm Server: A completely modular, OSGi-based Java server designed to run next-generation Java and Spring applications with a new degree of flexibility and reliability.
SpringSource ERS: An enterprise-ready version of the popular Apache HTTP web server that provides better performance and security and improves service quality and scalability of Web infrastructures.

Already, most of the Global 2000 turn to SpringSource for commercial software and support for powerful and lean application infrastructure software products powered by Spring, Groovy and Grails, Apache Tomcat, Apache Web server, and other popular open source technologies.

Can you provide an overview of Hyperic?

Hyperic is the leading open source provider of complete, easy-to-use software for monitoring and managing web applications wherever they are: in your data center, a virtual environment, or the cloud. No matter how custom-built your web applications are, Hyperic’s products give you a perfect-fit, scalable monitoring and management solution.

Hyperic HQ Enterprise monitors and manages your application infrastructure 24x7 ensuring the shortest downtime, and immediate notification of performance degradation or service unavailability.
Hyperic IQ transforms the metrics that IT uses to manage and monitor the application infrastructure stack into reports and systems intelligence that business users can use to analyze, evaluate, plan, and make strategic decisions.
Hyperic CloudStatus is the first service to provide real-time reports and weekly trends on the health and performance of the most popular cloud services, including Amazon Web Services and Google App Engine.

Thousands of companies worldwide depend on Hyperic to manage their web and infrastructure monitoring needs as well as their IT service level business functions. Hyperic technologies contribute to the success of IT and Web operation teams in companies of all sizes, in all industries, around the globe.

What are the target markets SpringSource is focused on serving?

SpringSource is focused on providing a complete suite of application infrastructure software products that enable businesses to build, run, and manage enterprise Java web applications in their data center, virtual environments, or the cloud. Our focus is on delivering "lean software" that enables our customers to dramatically cut cost and complexity, increase productivity, and accelerate the delivery of high-quality, business-critical applications.

SpringSource is not only focused on serving the needs of businesses deploying enterprise Java applications within their data centers, but also on serving the application management and monitoring needs of today’s modern software-as-a-service, internet-based, and cloud-based businesses that may be using dynamic language platforms (such as PHP, Ruby/Rails, Groovy/Grails, etc.) as well as or instead of enterprise Java to power their web-facing business. These businesses require management and monitoring infrastructure that provides the single source of truth behind the behavior and performance of every layer of their application. With the addition of Hyperic technologies, SpringSource is uniquely positioned to address these modern application requirements.

Is SpringSource moving into the systems management software market to compete against HP OpenView, IBM Tivoli, etc.?

SpringSource is not competing with the traditional systems management software providers. Today’s modern computing environments are moving away from a device-centric view of the world to an application-centric world powered by state of the art virtualized and cloud computing platforms. Businesses require application management and monitoring capabilities that provide deep and transparent insight into application service levels as requests flow through the web servers, application servers, databases, message queues and other application infrastructure deployed on physical, virtual, and cloud computing platforms. With the addition of Hyperic technologies, SpringSource is uniquely positioned to address these modern application requirements.

How does Hyperic factor into your virtualization and cloud strategies?

SpringSource feels that “lean software,” virtualization, and cloud computing are three disruptive and driving forces in the software market today. Based on our analysis of virtualization and cloud computing, Hyperic plays an important role for enterprise applications deployed in these environments. Moreover, Hyperic was recently named by Gartner as one of five “Cool Vendors in Cloud Computing Management and Professional Services.”, making Hyperic a clear leader for monitoring cloud-based applications.

Virtualization and cloud computing are key market areas for SpringSource. SpringSource partnered with VMware in December 2008, and we are actively working on joint solutions that will be brought to market over the course of 2009. We are also working on products and solutions for cloud computing, so we encourage people to stay tuned to our progress throughout 2009 and beyond.

What is “lean software”?

Lean software provides companies the right level of capability needed to build and deliver strategic IT solutions without the overhead of excess features and complexity. SpringSource is one of the leader’s of this approach; both in terms of the software we deliver as well as the applications developers create and deploy using our technology.

Analyst firms, such as Forrester, have recognized SpringSource’s leadership position in the lean software market. Forrester defines lean software as:

“An approach to building, delivering, and running software that values fit-to-purpose, simplicity, and time to results above all. Lean approaches minimize complexity, startup time, and resource usage and avoid features and methods not essential to fulfilling the application’s business purpose. Developers can easily combine lean software components with others when large systems require more features.”

For more details, please read Forrester’s paper entitled Lean Software Is Agile, Fit-To-Purpose, & Efficient.

SpringSource has been aggregating open source companies. Is your focus on being an open source aggregator?

SpringSource is not a general aggregator of open source. Our acquisitions of open source companies such as Hyperic, G2One, and Covalent have been based on our overarching strategy of providing a complete enterprise Java infrastructure software stack that accelerates the build, run, manage application lifecycle within the data center, virtual environments, and the cloud. Unlike an open source aggregator, SpringSource has assembled a complete, integrated technology solution and employs the leading contributors to the open source technologies in its portfolio to enable us to provide world-class support.

Will SpringSource be making further acquisitions in the future?

We are constantly monitoring the Java landscape, with the best interests of our customers, employees and the community in mind, to evaluate strategic technologies that would enhance our offerings. SpringSource is in a very strong financial position and well placed to seize any opportunities we may identify.

When did acquisition discussions between SpringSource and Hyperic begin?

SpringSource and Hyperic began initial discussions in January 2009.

How much did SpringSource pay for Hyperic?

We are not releasing financial details related to this announcement.

How will SpringSource and Hyperic customers benefit?

Customers will now have a wider choice of market leading products from a single vendor that address their needs across their build, run, manage application lifecycle. SpringSource will not only continue to address the cost, complexity, and productivity crisis for enterprise Java developers, we will extend that value proposition to include application administrators and operators as well. For businesses to achieve maximum IT acceleration, a systemic approach that unifies and streamlines the end-to-end lifecyle is required. By creating enterprise-class products fueled by open source innovation, SpringSource is uniquely positioned to deliver on this.

How will the open source community benefit?

SpringSource expands its open source leadership within the Spring, Apache, Eclipse, Groovy, and Grails open source communities with the addition of the Hyperic open source community. The open source community benefits by having a holistic set of open source technologies that span the application lifecycle and provide benefit to developers, administrators, and operators alike.

Customers and Sales FAQs

How will this affect Hyperic customers?

Hyperic customers will continue to receive the same level of support they are accustomed to. Since SpringSource offers a range of products and services for the entire Java lifecycle, customers have the opportunity to derive further benefit and value if they choose to do so.

Partner FAQs

How will SpringSource and Hyperic partners benefit?

SpringSource believes that this acquisition benefits any company associated with Java development, and any company who cares about the future of Java. We offer a comprehensive set of products addressing the entire Java application lifecycle, from development right through deployment and management. Our current partners address portions of that lifecycle, and they will benefit from our strategic focus moving forward.

Company Integration FAQs

Is the acquisition final or does it require any further board approvals?

This announcement marks the signing of the definitive agreement of sale. The acquisition is expected to complete within a few weeks. No other board approvals are required. Hyperic is based in San Francisco and SpringSource in San Mateo.

Will you consolidate locations?

We expect to consolidate certain business functions in San Mateo. Hyperic engineering will remain in San Francisco.

What’s the genesis/back story on how the companies came together?

Hyperic and SpringSource have been engaged in a substantial OEM partnership for over one year. Both companies have mutual respect for the other and the role they play in Java’s future. Hyperic is a big supporter of SpringSource’s strategic decision to provide comprehensive solutions for the entire Java lifecycle, and SpringSource recognizes the important role Hyperic technologies play within that lifecycle.

How does the composition of the SpringSource Board of Directors change?

The composition of the SpringSource Board of Directors will not change as a result of this merger.

How many employees does Hyperic have?Are all employees being retained?

Hyperic has about 35 employees, almost all of which will be retained.

Will the Hyperic management team stay on after the acquisition?