Matt Butcher and Radu Matei have worked on container technologies for years, where “containers” in this context refer to software packages that contain all the necessary elements to run in any environment, from a desktop PC to a server. As Deis Engineers and then DeisLabs, after Microsoft acquired it in 2017, their team explored the container landscape and built the package manager Helm as well as Brigade and other tools.
Along the way, they faced countless problems with containers – speed and cost. The failures prompted them and a handful of other DayLabs veterans to found Fermion, which today closed a $20 million Series A round of funding led by Insight Partners with participation from Amplify Partners and angel investors. Fermyon offers a managed cloud service, Fermion Cloud, which allows developers to build microservices or applications that work independently but together (for example, if one microservice fails, it doesn’t bring down the others).
“Fermion is building the next generation of cloud services on WebAssembly,” Bucher said, referring to the open standard that allows web browsers to run binary code. Originally written for the browser, WebAssembly has all the hallmarks of an excellent cloud computing platform… [Its] We really enjoyed the combination of features. Fermion plans to build a suite that allows developers to build, deploy, and then run WebAssembly binaries in a cloud context.
Butcher argues that WebAssembly is superior to containers in terms of startup time and compatibility across all operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac, and hardware platforms such as Intel and ARM. It is also more secure, as even untrusted code can be executed safely.
To explore WebAssembly’s container replacement potential, Fermion created Spin, an open source dev tool for creating WebAssembly cloud applications. Fermyon Cloud is an evolution of this work by providing a platform for customers to host those applications.
“Fermion Cloud empowers developers to deploy tools written in multiple languages (such as Rust, .NET, Go, JavaScript) and experience incredibly fast performance,” Bucher said. “[A]Anyone with a GitHub account can create cloud-native web applications … The developer self-service paradigm not only reduces the complexity of building applications, but also makes it easier for developers to write and test their code in a production-level environment. The finished version to the same hosted environment.
Fermyon Cloud allows developers to create up to five web applications or microservices and run them in a hosted environment. In addition to hosting applications, the service also offers release management, log access, and application configuration from a web console.
Now with employees in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, Fermion’s focus continues to build both its open source and commercial projects, Butcher said. Fermyon Cloud will expand into an “enterprise-ready” business offering in the coming months, as Fermyon looks to double its headcount to 20 by mid-2023 — emphasizing production, marketing, developer relations and community roles.
“We are well positioned to weather macroeconomic storms with the funding that we are announcing now,” Boucher said, declining to release earnings figures. “[We] We have money that will last us many years.
So far, Colorado-based Fermion has raised $26 million.
