Monday, June 5, 2006

Name: Command Information Inc.

Location: Herndon

Funding: The company has raised $16 million from the Carlyle Group, Blue Water Capital and Novak Biddle Venture Partners.

Big idea: Command Information is a professional services firm that helps Fortune 1000 companies transition to "IPv6" -- Internet Protocol version six. IPv6 has been under development for the past dozen years and is "set to make a big impact in 2008," said Tom Patterson, chief executive. Unlike current Internet technology, which was designed in the late 1970s to connect computers, IPv6 was designed in the late 1990s and it is engineered to connect devices such as mobile phones and sensors as well, Patterson said. "It takes into account what the Internet is really used for. From a practical standpoint the Internet is moving from hundreds of millions of computers that are interconnected to a trillion interconnected devices. What's the world going to look like when there are billions upon billions of interconnected devices?"

Command Information helps companies understand IPv6, what they need to do to use it and how to leverage it to improve their business. The company also helps organizations change their applications or develop new ones to capitalize on the new capabilities of IPv6, provides support in infrastructure and application security, helps organizations manage their cell phone and data networks together and helps them redesign their network architecture to be compatible with IPv6.

Where the idea was hatched: At the request of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Patterson started a working group that became the IPv6 Business Council.

"There was a gap between what the technology could do and what U.S. businesses understood about it," Patterson said. "They asked me to pull together both groups and do some education." The company grew from there, Patterson said.

Big-name customers: Cisco Systems Inc., the National Security Agency, the U.S. Army, Hewlett-Packard and AOL.

Price: Varies depending on the size of the customer and the work being done. The company bills as a professional services company.

Founded: 2005.

Who's in charge: Patterson; Jim Ungerleider, chief operating officer and president; and Bruce Ferber, chief financial officer.

Employees: The company has grown from two employees in January to 114 now. Patterson hopes the ranks will increase to 500 by Christmas.

Web site: http://www.commandinformation.com

What the name means: "We looked at a trillion new end points coming to the Internet and decided we wanted a name that would invoke helping these organizations take charge or command of this information," Patterson said. "It's all about who's in charge. You can let these trillion data points manage you or you can take command of your own information."

-- Andrea Caumont