Caspian Networks Inc. , originally founded as Packetcom in 1998, has shut its doors and ceased operations, according to two sources close to the company.
Caspian, founded by Internet pioneer Dr. Lawrence Roberts, had as many as 323 employees about five-and-a-half years ago, but that number has fluctuated wildly over the company's many fits and starts. Fewer than 100 people remained when the decision was made to shut the doors, a source close to the company says.
Roberts left Caspian in early 2004. Light Reading was the first to report his arrival at Anagran Inc. , where he took the ideas of tracking IP traffic based on flows, in order to provide quality of service (QOS) and load balancing, and applied it to customer premises equipment. (See Roberts' Anagran Plan Draws $8M.) [Ed. note: By the way, "a nag ran" is an anagram for Anagran.]
The company's mission was to build one big honkin' core IP router that would allow carriers to provide unprecedented QOS -- even in an all-IP network. But by early 2002, Caspian had washed out all its early investors and was still hungry for cash. (See Washed Out in the Valley.)
Caspian's A50Sorry, we didn't have a milk carton big enough.
In 2003, Caspian finally explained its router to the world and boasted that it had some 35 carrier trials going on. Indeed, it looked as though the years of hype and the millions invested were starting to pay off. (See Caspian Comes Out.)
Or not.
Some months later, Caspian toned down its core routing rhetoric and followed Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) into the world of helping carriers monitor and control the traffic caused by peer to peer (P2P) networks. (See Caspian Adds P2P Punch.)
In May 2005, Caspian shocked the private equity world again by ringing up another $55 million in funding, bringing its total funding to date to more than $300 million. The company said at the time that it was hoping to become profitable in late 2006.
One last peep out of Caspian came in April, when the company put itself out there as the solution for the network neutrality debate. In a clever bit of marketing, the company invented the Fair Use Policy Framework, a fancy way of describing the process of allocating different bandwidth thresholds to different services. (See Caspian Plays Fair.)
First core routing. Then P2P networking. Then net neutrality. Investors apparently put the kibosh on the company before it crow-barred itself into another communications fad. [Ed. note: "Gosh, that's the largest gaming console I've ever seen!"]
Light Reading's calls to several Caspian investors weren't returned. Calls to Caspian's CEO Brad Wurtz were not returned by press time, so it's yet unclear how far along the company is in its closure or whether any bidders have emerged for its intellectual property. Calls to industry analysts were met with uncomfortable silence in one case, and stifled laughter in another.
Caspian CEO Brad WurtzNot a cell phone in sight. No wonder he didn't call back.
"We've had our differences on these boards but I have to say great post. SS is so obsessed with failed start-ups and housing bubbles it borders on mental illness (its clear that he missed out on the tech boom and the housing boom... too bad for him)."
I have to agree with most of you. I don't understand why SS is so B I T T E R ????? It is as if life is not worth living ....... It is as if he used to work for a startup in the Silicon Valley, then got stuck with a big AMT when the market crashed, lost his house, lost his savings, and got stuck in huge credit card debt ....... :( On the bright side, at least SS still get to surf the web ....... :)
re: I am paranoid, you are right. As to the censorship fears, that is due to the whole net neutrality debate, the fact that ATT CEO Ed Whitacre calls people putting their content on "his" network for a flat fee "nuts", and the fact that LR has articles like "DPI: Taming the Peer-to-Peer beast".
Some people believe that that's the result of market forces at work and their fear is that too much government control would end up with even more harmful censorship.
Dear Optiplayer: I am paranoid, you are right. As to the censorship fears, that is due to the whole net neutrality debate, the fact that ATT CEO Ed Whitacre calls people putting their content on "his" network for a flat fee "nuts", and the fact that LR has articles like "DPI: Taming the Peer-to-Peer beast".
The stated telco strategies of IP-TV also indicate where they believe their bread is buttered. Internet access is an afterthought at best. They therefore apparently do not foresee paybacks from big broadband access, but from movie rentals.
I see blocking our "information highway" in this manner as much a threat to our economy as blocking our interstate system. That system also lacked a "business case". But, where would we be without it?
The reason there is no deep fiber penetration here is the lack of a business case. Look at the numbers for VZ - $980 to pass a home plus another $1000 to connect it. At a 25% take rate thats almost $5000 per sub. The carriers want to shorten their payback by offering a differentiated service and you shout censorship (as if high speed broadband were an inalienable right).
Please provide examples of censorship on the part of VZ or T. I assume Comcast and TW must be censoring too, can you provide examples of that as well.
Frankly, I don't want any government policies promoting broadband. Let the business case stand or fail on its own.
Dear Netphilic: Users may want broadband, however domestically at least we will not get it as long as it is not in the short-term economic interests of service providers to provide it. With our bought-off FCC, we have no domestic policy to promote widespread fiber deployments, so forget it.
If you live in VZ territory, you get a censored fraction of your fiber. If you live in ATT territory, you get censored DSL. Or, you can go to a muni wi-fi network. Thats it.
>cisco has an almost complete TCP/IP portfolio, but not >nearly a complete Telecom portfolio. TCP/IP porfolio is >very complete for enterprise, almost complete for service
Isn't VOIP proven in last couple of years? IPTV will be next with those terabit routers. People will soon have optical fiber to their home and service will be just plug_and_play over IP. It was talked for long, but this time the market is hungry for higher BW and QOS.
Cisco has a complete portfolio? Sara, you need to understand a lot more about how service providers work and how their networks are built.
cisco has an almost complete TCP/IP portfolio, but not nearly a complete Telecom portfolio. TCP/IP porfolio is very complete for enterprise, almost complete for service providers, but for the telecom basic infrastructure, they are still a niche player with big sales in some very specific sectors.
A "complete portfolio" gives the equipment provider the weight of pricing power. It could increase the cost of service providers in buying the equipment. Therefore, service providers will not entirely focus on the "complete portfolio". To them, keeping multiple competitors for the equipment are crucial.
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Sorry, we didn't have a milk carton big enough.
Route at the core... nevermore.
Not a cell phone in sight. No wonder he didn't call back.
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