Coming off their $100K win at Mass Challenge, we got the chance to talk to Waseem Daher, co-founder and COO of Ksplice. You know how every time you receive a systems update you have to reboot your computer in order for the update to complete?  The guys at Ksplice had enough of that, and pioneered a product that removed the necessity to reboot after a systems update. Just think of how much time is wasted rebooting and how annoying it is to you personally. Now imagine having to constantly reboot a server at a web hosting company while trying not to bring down any client’s websites. Cambridge, Mass based Ksplice is attempting to make rebooting a thing of the past, allowing companies to reduce downtime and maximize efficiency while remaining up to date and secure.

BostInnovation: What problem did Ksplice set out to solve?

Waseem Daher: At Ksplice, we end rebooting.  You know those pop-ups you get that say You Must Reboot to Install Updates?  We made those obsolete.  We’ve made it so you can install those updates without rebooting.  The reason to why that is so valuable is not as much on your desktop or laptop, as it is on your server infrastructure; the servers that are powering your company’s important applications.

BostInno: Can you tell our readers the story of how the company was founded?

Daher: This was very much something that was born out of necessity.  Back when we were at MIT we were administering servers there, and these “updates” would come out.  There was one update in particular that came out in the middle of the week, and we took the standard sys admin [systems administrator] practice.  We were going to come in on Sunday, install the update, and reboot the system…the usual song and dance.  But between the Wednesday when the update came out, and the Sunday when we were going to install it, someone broke into the system!  The way they broke into the system was the exact bug that was going to be fixed by that update.  So that made us ask, “Why does it have to be this way? Surely we can make this problem much less painful.”  We decided then that the process should be much more seamless, you should be able to stay up to date without all this pain.

BostInno: So how does the magic of Ksplice work?

Daher: Basically what happens is that when your vendor comes out with these updates that would need a reboot, we take these updates and transform them on our end to create the “rebootless” version.  We then send the “rebootless” version to your system.  This is happening all the time!  If you look at your vendors they’re putting out these really important updates that you have to reboot for 14 or 15 times a year, which ends up being about once a month.

BostInno: What are some examples of the ROI businesses have received using Ksplice?

Daher: Companies are using Ksplice for a couple of reasons.  The uptime is definitely a big one, but a really big aspect as well is all of the cost associated with maintenance, aka the sys admins.  When these updates come out, the sys admins have to: come in at Sunday at 2AM, they have to coordinate with the users and customers, there’s just a whole bunch of administrative overhead associated with this process.  So we really let these sys admins “take back” their weekend.  Instead they can install these updates in a way that’s totally non-disruptive, while their applications are running, and that has proven to be a dramatic cost saver for companies.

BostInno: Who are the direct competitors of Ksplice?  Who are the indirect competitors?

Daher: The thing about this technology is there’s nothing like it out there.  If you talked to people about this, they’d say “this is impossible there’s no way you can apply these updates without rebooting.”  The alternative to Ksplice is this onerous process of scheduling these sys admins to come in 12 to 15 times a year.

BostInno: Congratulations on winning the $100K prize in the Mass Challenge.   Can you tell us about your experience with the MassChallenege?

Daher: We were delighted to participate in the MassChallenge program.  The thing that I liked the most is that they are heavily investing in the Boston startup ecosystem.  It was great to work closely with folks to really focus on nurturing that community.  In particular, we talked extensively with Carol Meyers and Brian Halligan (Hubspot CEO).  It was great that MassChallenge had pulled together to bring in the Boston elite [as mentors].

BostInno: What’s up next for Ksplice?

Daher: That’s a great question.  First of all, it’s satisfying to see the growth of our subscription services especially as we are increasingly moving into the enterprise deployment.  Beyond that, Ksplice is currently being delivered on Linux but the technology is applicable everywhere, this is just the beginning. If you look at the datacenter or really anything that has software, has software that gets out of date.  The problem with updating that software is one that we are very well poised to solve.

To learn more about Ksplice, check out their blog, Twitter, and Facebook pages.