StackIQ

StackIQ, originally established as Clustercorp in 2006 by co-founders Tim McIntire and Mason Katz, represented a significant player in the infrastructure automation space. The company began by offering a commercial version of the Rocks Cluster Distribution, a Linux-based software. In 2011, a strategic re-incorporation as StackIQ marked a move to San Diego and a refined focus. The firm secured approximately $11 million in venture capital over two rounds, with a notable $6 million Series B in October 2014, backed by investors including OurCrowd and Avalon Ventures.

The core of StackIQ's business was providing an automation platform for provisioning and managing large-scale server clusters, targeting the Big Data and cloud computing markets. Its flagship open-source product, Stacki, was engineered to rapidly and reliably take servers from bare metal to a fully operational, cluster-ready state. The platform's methodology allowed for the simultaneous provisioning of any number of servers through Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) installations, managed via a database of variables that could be manipulated by spreadsheet or command line. This catered to clients needing to deploy and manage complex, heterogeneous server environments for applications like Hadoop, Docker, and various big data frameworks. The business model centered on the commercial entity supporting the open-source Stacki software, offering robust solutions for what it termed "Big Infrastructure."

StackIQ's trajectory culminated in its acquisition by Teradata in July 2017 for an undisclosed amount. This move was a strategic acqui-hire for Teradata, aimed at integrating StackIQ's expertise and intellectual property to simplify and automate the deployment of its own Teradata Everywhere and IntelliCloud solutions. The acquisition brought StackIQ's engineering team into Teradata's R&D organization, leveraging their specialized skills in open-source software and large cluster provisioning to accelerate software deployment across physical, virtual, and hybrid cloud infrastructures. Keywords: StackIQ, Clustercorp, Tim McIntire, Mason Katz, server provisioning, infrastructure automation, bare metal provisioning, cluster management, big data infrastructure, Stacki, Rocks Cluster Distribution, Teradata acquisition, cloud deployment, data center automation, software provisioning platform, scale-out infrastructure, DevOps, large cluster provisioning, IT automation, hybrid cloud management