Loudcloud Inks Deals with Accenture, Jamcracker

Software infrastructure services provider Loudcloud Inc. this week entered into agreements with technology consultancy Accenture and ASP aggregator Jamcracker Inc.

The Accenture alliance, announced on Tuesday (April 10) calls for the companies to identify, pursue and refer each other to enterprise customers who might benefit from each other’s services. The deal will take advantage of Accenture’s expertise in designing and implementing strategic outsourcing solutions while Loudcloud provides the operational support of a client’s Internet site through its Opsware automation technology.

“Loudcloud is focused on providing enterprise corporations with world-class Internet infrastructure services,” said Ben Horowitz, CEO and co-founder Loudcloud. “The combination of Accenture’s comprehensive approach to delivering business solutions and Loudcloud’s mission-critical operations technology will result in delivering a better solution to our customers.”

Under Monday’s agreement with Jamcracker, software companies who are offering their software as an online service on the Jamcracker platform can outsource the hosting of their Internet infrastructure to Loudcloud and gain access to new sales and marketing opportunities through Jamcracker. Similarly, an enterprise corporation can now outsource the operations of their Internet site to Loudcloud and gain access to Jamcracker’s roster of software services for use inside their company.

Jamcracker provides integrated Web-based services that help businesses deploy new IT and business capabilities and evolve their IT infrastructure. To accomplish this, the company offers Jamcracker Enterprise, a platform of Web-based services that are deployed, managed and supported by Jamcracker.

“Jamcracker is a key strategic partner for us. Together we offer customers a complete solution for outsourcing Internet and IT operations so they can stay focused on their core competencies and activities that are important to the business as a whole.” said Scott Dunlap, vice president of marketing at Loudcloud.

Loudcloud’s Opsware automation technology is designed to handle all operational aspects of Internet sites. It offers a solution for outsourcing global Internet operations for enterprise companies, ASPs and large-scale Internet businesses. Loudcloud moves beyond hosting or managed services with its Opsware technology to automate, scale and monitor Internet operation functions previously done by hand.

Loudcloud was formed in September 1999 by some of the Internet’s early entrepreneurs, including Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen and former Netscape/AOL executives Ben Horowitz, Tim Howes and In Sik Rhee. Loudcloud offers businesses Internet infrastructure services required to provision, deploy, maintain and scale Internet operations.

Loudcloud’s Smart Cloud services enable businesses to benefit from reliable, high-quality and scalable Internet operations without undertaking the difficulty and expense associated with building the required expertise in-house. These Smart Cloud services leverage Loudcloud’s proprietary Opsware automation technology to deliver scalability and reliability for a broad base of customers.