Joyent
Encyclopedia
Joyent is a cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....

 software and services company based in San Francisco, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, since 2004. Joyent provides application virtualization.

JoyentCloud, Joyent’s hosting business unit, offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS
IAAS
IAAS can refer to the following:*Incorporated Association of Architects and Surveyors, British professional body renamed 1993 as the Association of Building Engineers* Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, institute of Tribhuvan University, Nepal...

) and Platform as a Service (PaaS
Paas
Paas is a brand of Easter egg dye. It is currently owned by Signature Brands, LLC.-History:The original PAAS Easter egg dye was invented by an American named William Townley. Townley was an owner of a drug store in Newark, New Jersey, where he concocted recipes for home products...

) for large enterprises.

Founding

Founded in 2004, Joyent originally focused on providing a hosted suite of applications (mail, calendar, contacts, etc.). Over time the company has evolved into a cloud computing software and hosting services provider. Cloud services are provided to many well-known companies including Social Game Universe, Traffic Marketplace, THQ
THQ
THQ Inc. is an American developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 1989 in the United States, the company develops products for video game consoles, handheld game systems, as well as for personal computers and wireless devices...

, and hosted Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...

 in its early days. Recently, Joyent has evolved into offering a cloud computing software stack.

In 2005, they bought TextDrive, gaining an ASP platform.

In 2009, Joyent acquired Reasonably Smart, a cloud startup based on JavaScript and Git. It also licensed its Smart software to Dell. In 2009, it sold off both Strongspace and Bingodisk to ExpanDrive.

In 2010, Joyent purchased LayerBoom, a Vancouver-based startup that provides solutions for managing virtual machines running on Windows and Linux.

Customers include LinkedIn
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...

, Gilt Groupe
Gilt Groupe
Gilt Groupe is a shopping website based in the United states, offering its members merchandise, clothing, home decor, delicatessen food, travel and activities. Gilt Groupe was founded in 2007 and has 3.5 million members...

, and Kabam
Kabam
Kabam is an interactive entertainment company that develops and publishes massively multiplayer social games , including the popular and critically praised Kingdoms of Camelot...

.

Joyent is using a multi-pronged strategy. The JoyentCloud hosting business is focusing on large enterprises and one of the fastest growing segments, online social gaming. Joyent has taken the software stack that evolved over time in the running of their hosted business and is now licensing that software to large hardware companies such as Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...

. Joyent uses and supports Node.js
Node.js
Node.js is a software system designed for writing highly-scalable internet applications, notably web servers.Programs are written in JavaScript, using event-driven, asynchronous I/O to minimize overhead and maximize scalability....

.

In August, 2011, Joyent open sourced SmartOS, its specialized distribution of Illumos
Illumos
Illumos is a derivative of OS/Net , which basically is a Solaris/OpenSolaris kernel with the bulk of the drivers, core libraries, and basic utilities. It is dependent on OS/Net, which Illumos will follow very closely while allowing to retain changes to code which might be unacceptable to upstream...

, along with its port of KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine
Kernel-based Virtual Machine
Kernel-based Virtual Machine is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel. KVM supports native virtualization on processors with hardware virtualization extensions....

).

Joyent is a supporter of open source projects including Node.js
Node.js
Node.js is a software system designed for writing highly-scalable internet applications, notably web servers.Programs are written in JavaScript, using event-driven, asynchronous I/O to minimize overhead and maximize scalability....

, Illumos
Illumos
Illumos is a derivative of OS/Net , which basically is a Solaris/OpenSolaris kernel with the bulk of the drivers, core libraries, and basic utilities. It is dependent on OS/Net, which Illumos will follow very closely while allowing to retain changes to code which might be unacceptable to upstream...

 and SmartOS.

Financing

Joyent has raised over $20M in funding since 2005. Investors include:
  • Peter Thiel
    Peter Thiel
    Peter Andreas Thiel is an American business magnate, venture capitalist, and hedge fund manager. With Elon Musk and Max Levchin, Thiel co-founded PayPal and was its CEO...

     (Seed Round)
  • Intel Capital (Series A, B Rounds)
  • Greycroft Partners
    Greycroft Partners
    Greycroft Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investments in early stage companies primarily in the digital media sector. The firm raised its first fund with $75 million of investor commitments and has deployed that fund into 34 companies....

    (Series A, B Rounds)
  • Liberty Global (Series B Round)
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