Startup Of The Week: Neocleus

Neocleus has developed a hypervisor that runs on PCs and laptops. It can run multiple operating systems, such as Windows and Mac OS. It also can create distinct environments, such as a work environment that only runs business applications and a personal one for Web browsing.
--Andrew Conry-Murray NEOCLEUS

HEADQUARTERS: Jersey City, N.J.

PRODUCT: Desktop Hypervisor Framework, Trusted Edge

PRINCIPALS: Ariel Gorfung, co-founder, president, and CEO; Etay Bogner, co-founder and CTO; Yoav Weiss, chief security architect

INVESTORS: Battery Ventures, Gemini Israel Funds

FUNDING: $16.4 million<

EARLY ADOPTERS: Standard Charter Bank is evaluating Trusted Edge

WHAT'S DIFFERENT?

Neocleus' hypervisor is Type 1, meaning it runs directly on hardware and doesn't need an operating system. Many PC-based hypervisors are Type 2, which means they run inside an existing OS. Type 1 provides superior protection because malware that corrupts an OS won't affect the underlying hypervisor or any other virtual machines hosted by the hypervisor. CONTROL KNOBS Trusted Edge lets users connect to Citrix Presentation Server via Independent Computing Architecture, Citrix's proprietary protocol for connecting remote computers to an application server. Users also can access Web applications via HTML and Ajax. In addition, Trusted Edge supports the Remote Desktop Protocol, so users can connect to another computer that runs Microsoft Terminal Services. The company aims to support a variety of Windows applications as well. PEDIGREE Co-founder Gorfung was CEO of Intuwave, which provides connectivity middleware for the Symbian platform. Co-founder Bogner also helped found SofaWare, which was acquired by Check Point Software. BACKGROUND Neocleus has two technology offerings. The first is the Desktop Hypervisor Framework, a hypervisor based on the Xen open source hypervisor. Neocleus has modified the server-oriented Xen to run on PCs and laptops. The company plans to contribute its modifications to the open source community. Neocleus also is building virtual appliances to run on its hypervisor. Trusted Edge is the first. It creates a virtual environment that lets users remotely connect to corporate applications. TIMELINE