Sumerian Sets Sights on Data Centers

U.K. data center startup Sumerian Networks is extending its network and performance monitoring business across Europe -- and it's doing so without a dime of venture capital backing.

The company was set up in 2002 by David Sibbald and Martin Velasco, the former chairman and non-executive director, respectively, of U.K. software company Atlantech. Sibbald and Geneva-based Velasco stumped up the $1.84 million in seed capital to get the business up and running, and just over two months ago, the company broken even. Sibbald founded Atlantech in 1992, and that company was sold to Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) eight years later for $212 million.

According to Sibbald, Sumerian offers a range of performance and network monitoring services -- typically to companies in the financial sector with over 10,000 employees. This includes mainframe, server, and network traffic monitoring, as well as application monitoring.

Sumerian uses software agents that collect the information from customers devices. This data is then sent back to the startup’s Edinburgh data center, where it is collated and analyzed.

Sibbald says that the company is working with three “very large” companies to solve some “very thorny” problems in their IT infrastructures. Although he was unwilling to name the clients involved, Sibbald did provide an example of the work undertaken.Sumerian worked with one firm that wanted to migrate to a VOIP infrastructure, but was concerned about the impact on the rest of its IT infrastructure. ”We created a large model of how their application was behaving, and then we created a number of VOIP scenarios,” says Sibbald. The Glasgow-based startup then simply transferred the application and infrastructure data into the new VOIP scenarios to give the customer an indication of the cost and performance issues involved.

With a handful of customers under its belt, Sumerian is now looking to expand. Velasco’s presence in Switzerland will form the basis for a new mainland Europe operation, according to Sibbald.

At the same time, the company is also repackaging many of its services to create standardized offerings around technologies such as VOIP and data center virtualization.

But there are some big hitters already playing in this space, namely, the behemoth that is IBM Global Services and managed services vendors such as BT Group plc (NYSE: BTY; London: BTA) and Equant (NYSE: ENT; Paris: EQU).

However, the limited service offered by Sumerian could prove appealing to those firms wary of traditional outsourcing. Jamie Snowdon, research director at analyst firm IDC, believes that starting small could be one of Sumerian’s major selling points. “This is one of the first network monitoring services that I have heard of that is outside of a wider agreement. They will probably catch those companies that are unsure about outsourcing,” he says.”If companies are reluctant to outsource for cultural reasons, this could provide them with an enhanced level of services without having to go down that route."

The "cultural reasons" that Snowdon alludes to include fear of antagonizing labor unions and the need for keeping corporate data away from the prying eyes of an outsourcing partner.

However, Snowdon warned that Sumerian will have to maintain strong links with key movers and shakers in the financial industry if it is to meet Sibbald’s expectations. Sibbald predicts that the company’s customers will be well into double figures within the next twelve months.

”If they have the right relationships and they are talking to the right people then it’s definitely possible,” says Snowdon. “The IT industry at the moment is all about relationships -- it’s not marketing that actually wins business with this type of thing.”

— James Rogers, Site Editor, Next-gen Data Center Forum0