Racemi Joins Automation Race

A six-year-old Atlanta company, oddly named Racemi, has reinvented itself to speed up server disaster recovery and extend the benefits of utility computing to a range of environments, including those that are virtualized.

Racemi's software, called DynaCenter, eliminates the need for heavy-duty processing that typically accompanies server provisioning in IT networks. (See Racemi Unveils 2.2.) Instead of sending a layered operating system-plus-applications image across a LAN or SAN to recover or provision a server, Racemi's software sends a basic image that boots up from the network and "fakes out" the server into thinking network storage is its own local drive.

DynaCenter works with Windows, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, and Solaris, and it can support virtual machines in VMware and LPARs.

Racemi's technology draws on well known methods of booting from a network, to which the firm has added the ability to identify the network, not local storage, as the source of key configuration elements for each server. "We don't push anything over the network. We build a bootable image in the network and assign it to the server as needed," says Brian Hoffman, VP of product strategy and services at Racemi. "We separate hardware drivers from the operating system."

Racemi's technique has several benefits, according to Hoffman. First, it doesn't soak up bandwidth, since it uses the boot-up routine to provision a server. Second, it cuts down the time required to boot new servers from SAN, NAS, iSCSI, or local drives. "We can push a [server] image out in less than a minute," Hoffman boasts. "In fact, we can push out 100 images in under a minute."Racemi pushes its platform as a tool for "alternative use of idle disaster recovery assets and for automating data center relocations." But at least one customer think it's good for utility computing.

Atlanta-based credit card provider CompuCredit has been using Racemi's software for over a year. "We use them for Web and application servers... We needed a tool that can return servers to a known good state without worrying about [local] storage," says Ronald Williams, director of systems engineering and quality assurance. Other server configuration systems, he says, require the replacement of the entire operating system, which takes time and doesn't allow for dynamic utility computing.

Williams's group has used DynaCenter since November 2005 to juggle processing power among a series of IBM BladeCenter servers running Linux. "We have 70 servers under Racemi control," he notes. If application servers aren't required at a particular time, Williams takes them offline, using manual or automatic commands that kick in when performance drops or utilization climbs.

CompuCredit has spent roughly $100,000 on the Racemi kit, including about $45,000 on software and $30,000 on services. The customer is pleased so far, but Williams would like to see Racemi support mainframe environments more aggressively. And he's trying to get Racemi to partner with BladeLogic to advance CompuCredit's overall IT automation and configuration management.

Don't the two compete? Not according to Williams. "Eighty-five percent of what BladeLogic does does not compete with Racemi," he maintains. BladeLogic also does server provisioning, he notes, but its emphasis is more on configuration management and control. His view is backed up by BladeLogic's recent partnership with Onaro. (See Onaro, BladeLogic Team.)In a broad context, Racemi is pitted against the likes of Veritas and Opsware, which also provide server provisioning for a range of purposes. (See Opsware Opens Up on Storage and Symantec Expands Family.) There also are some other startups focused on the application-level aspects of provisioning. (See Trigence .)

Racemi actually began in 2001 as a maker of server blades, for which it has patents -- ones it claims some big server companies are violating. But the company has abandoned its hardware ambitions and spun off its legal activities separately.

Racemi has about 22 employees at present and a handful of paying customers, including Honeywell, which is reportedly using the software to consolidate 400 data centers into two (2). Funding includes a recent $3.4 million round of A-1 funding from Atlanta-based Pattillo Investments LLC. New CEO Richard Stansbury, a longtime IT consultant, took the helm in February.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch