SourceLabs

About SourceLabs

SourceLabs, founded in 2004 by Byron Sebastian, specialized in providing enterprise-grade support and management for open-source software. Sebastian, drawing from his extensive software industry experience at companies like Microsoft and BEA, established the Seattle-based firm to address the growing need for dependable open-source systems within large IT organizations.

The company's core business revolved around a subscription-based model, offering tools and services to support and manage open-source software deployments. This addressed a critical pain point for enterprises adopting open-source technologies, which often lacked centralized control and formal support structures. SourceLabs provided a way for IT departments to standardize their open-source components, manage security patches, and receive timely alerts.

A key product was the SourceLabs Continuous Support System, a suite of software programs designed to automate technical support for corporations using open-source products, particularly those based on Java middleware. This system featured adaptive diagnostic probes that monitored production environments to preemptively identify and resolve issues, thereby reducing downtime. It could automatically diagnose problems, notify both the customer and SourceLabs' support team, and reference a vast database of known issues to expedite solutions. The company also developed the Open Source Management System to help centralize and standardize the use of various open-source products within large companies. Following its operation as a provider of managed open-source solutions, the company was acquired on January 3, 2009.