Layer 7 is a Vancouver-based, venture funded success story with five years of experience (and the dot.com era memories to prove it) of providing critical infrastructure for companies who need web applications to communicate with each other. "We supply the plumbing," Layer 7 marketing and alliances VP Dimitri Sirota said. He pointed to Facebook as a good example of a platform where applications are leveraged by small companies. "The same thing happens in the enterprise, but with specific departments building apps," Sirota said. He added that Layer 7 works closely with Sun Microsystems to implement their hardware and software solutions, and announced at Launch Party 03 on Friday that Layer 7's products will be deployed under OpenSolaris.
Nick White of Sun, who was also at the Launch Party event, said that Layer 7's culture is a perfect fit for Sun. "Our partnership with Layer 7 is pretty significant. We map out where they want to go with their company, and we also provide them with some advertising on Sun.com, which gets a vast amount of traffic," White said. White also took time out at Launch Party to announce Sun Start up Essentials, a new program (for Canada) which gives up and coming companies access to significant savings on Sun hardware as well as providing information on free software and offering assistance. "We want to help start ups speed their products to market and help them develop. We offer a global company that helps you ramp up quickly," White said.
