Up is the New Up

As some of you may have already heard, 2009 was a spectacular year for Layer 7. Despite the economic downturn—leading to the “flat is the new up” quip around the Valley—we actually grew more than in any year previous. In fact, we’ve grown steadily year-over-year for the last four years. 2009, however, turned out to be special for a number of reasons.

First, Gartner placed us in the leader’s quadrant in the MQ for Integrated SOA Governance. This is important because it recognizes that SecureSpan Gateways offer a comprehensive solution for SOA governance in-a-box. Now, you will never catch me equating governance with technology; but technology is a critical component of governance, and if the technology is well-designed it will give you the tools you need to support your overall SOA governance initiative.

2009 also saw the formal launch of our cloud product line. With the Amazon AMI image of SecureSpan, we released the industry’s first—and only—SOA Governance Gateway for the cloud. We were active contributors to important efforts like the Cloud Security Alliance’s critical guidance for securing the cloud. And we successfully promoted mantra that “in the cloud, you must protect services, not networks,” at watershed industry events like GigaOm Structure and through ongoing presentations with leading thinkers like David Linthicum and Anne Thomas Manes. These days, everybody seems to be jumping onto the cloud bandwagon; what is much more rare is a company offering something besides talk and vapor. Well, talk is easy.  I’m very happy that we made real accomplishments in the cloud space in 2009.

But it’s not all about the cloud. With the release of the Oracle OSB Appliance, which came out last fall, we’re showing the continued value of high performance, secure appliances in the enterprise. Layer 7’s OSB gives you a real solution for putting important infrastructure like OSB into the DMZ. The DMZ is in our DNA, and you should expect further innovation in this area in the near future.

In the end, the measure of all of this is sales success, and we’re very happy with our results. Layer 7 recorded a 35% growth in customers over 2008 and a blow-out year for revenue. This success energizes the team and fosters a great determination to continue to win—it is tangible as you walk the floor. I couldn’t ask for anything better going into 2010, because the products and innovation that are underway will far exceed what came out in ’09. Watch this space.