Opsware Inc. is a company.
Key people at Opsware Inc..
Opsware Inc. was founded by In Sik Rhee (Founder, Chief Tactician).
Opsware Inc. was founded by In Sik Rhee (Founder, Chief Tactician).
Key people at Opsware Inc..
# High-Level Overview
Opsware was a data center automation software company that provided enterprise IT operations management solutions.[1] Founded originally as Loudcloud in 1999, the company pivoted from a managed services provider to a pure software vendor in 2002, offering products for server provisioning, configuration, and automated lifecycle management.[1][2] Opsware served enterprise customers, government agencies, and service providers seeking to automate manual IT operations tasks across their data centers.[1][3] The company was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in September 2007 for $1.65 billion, marking a significant exit for its founders and investors.[1]
# Origin Story
Opsware's journey began on September 9, 1999, when Marc Andreessen (former Netscape cofounder and CTO), Ben Horowitz, Tim Howes, and In Sik Rhee founded Loudcloud as a managed services provider.[1][4] The company was among the first to offer Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models, positioning itself as an early voice in cloud computing.[1] Loudcloud went public in March 2001 despite an unfavorable market climate for Internet companies.[2]
The pivotal moment came in June 2002 when Loudcloud sold its hosting and managed services operations to EDS for $63.5 million in cash.[1][2] This strategic exit from the services business provided crucial capital and allowed the company to rebrand as Opsware, Inc. in late 2002, focusing exclusively on enterprise software development.[2] The founders' deep experience running infrastructure operations at scale gave them intimate knowledge of the pain points they were solving—a significant competitive advantage that shaped their product roadmap.[4]
# Core Differentiators
# Role in the Broader Tech Landscape
Opsware rode the wave of enterprise IT infrastructure modernization during the mid-2000s. As companies scaled their data centers and virtualization adoption accelerated, manual server and network management became increasingly untenable. Opsware's automation software addressed this inflection point directly, enabling IT teams to manage complex, multi-application environments at scale.
The company's evolution from Loudcloud also reflected a broader market maturation: the shift from hosted services (which required significant capital and operational overhead) to software licensing (which offered better margins and scalability). This transition positioned Opsware as a pure-play software vendor at precisely the moment when enterprise IT automation was becoming a critical business function.
By the time of its acquisition, Opsware had grown from $4-10 million to approximately $80-100 million in revenue, demonstrating strong market validation.[4] HP's $1.65 billion acquisition price reflected the strategic value of Opsware's automation capabilities, which would eventually be integrated into HPE's enterprise software portfolio and later spun into Micro Focus (subsequently acquired by OpenText in 2023).[1]
# Quick Take & Future Outlook
Opsware's story is one of strategic pivoting and founder-led product excellence. The founders recognized that the real value lay not in operating infrastructure services, but in building software tools that would become essential to enterprise IT operations. Their $1.65 billion exit validated this thesis and demonstrated the market's hunger for automation solutions.
Had Opsware remained independent, it would likely have continued consolidating the IT automation space through acquisitions. Instead, its integration into HP's enterprise portfolio positioned it as a foundational component of HPE's infrastructure software strategy—a role that proved durable enough to survive multiple corporate transformations and eventually contribute to OpenText's enterprise software empire. The company's legacy underscores how early-stage founders with operational expertise can build category-defining software businesses by solving problems they've lived through firsthand.
