As software houses go, privately held Berkeley Software Design Inc is something of a shrinking violet. ComputerWire last covered the company in March 1996 (CI No 3,055), when Internet Server 3.0 came out; sure enough, it has appeared on the radar screen again just as Internet Super Server 4.0 hits the streets. The product is a bundle of BSD Unix with free and open source applications including the Apache Web server and Sendmail’s spam-proof mail server. As with other software companies based on essentially free software, corporate-level support services form BSDI’s key value-add. The new integer release supports multiprocessing (about time, some might say), a fast file system, IP v.6 and IPX for interoperability with Novell NetWare. The company claims a presence in over 70% of internet service providers worldwide and in 3000 of the 4500 ISPs now doing business in the US. Though BSDI admits it is not especially prominent in enterprise systems today, it hopes to make its quiet way in on the backs of existing large customers like UUNet, WorldCom and US West. The sales story centers on the reliability and stability of Internet Super Server, whose record uptimes exceed 500 days.
