Company name: Strata8
Founded: incorporated December 2006
Location: Bellevue, Wash.
What does the company offer? Local area cellular service for your enterprise, via its own spectrum in the 1900MHz band, available in 16 U.S. markets. The company can set up a UTSTarcom base station on your site (the charge for the base station varies with the site), you select from a gradually growing set of CDMA cell phones (including Moto Q and Treo 700wx), and pay $29.95 per month per subscriber (for the "io.cellular.plus" service, which includes voice mail and unlimited domestic long-distance). The service was launched in January.
You get unlimited free calls to all Strata8 cell phones in your company, and to other Strata8 subscribers, and to your desk phone extensions via integration with the corporate PBX. Outside the office, cellular calls roam to Sprint’s network. Long-distance calls are unlimited and free if Strata8 terminates the call. If the call terminate in your PBX (the carrier does the integration), the calls cost your standard landline rates.
Why is it worth watching? In effect, it's like a personal cellular service for the enterprise, which means potentially big savings on per-minute costs. Strata8 estimates that many companies can cut their cellular bills by half. The PBX integration links what is often two separate worlds. And you don't need to deploy and manage VoIP Wi-Fi/cellular convergence products from vendors like Agito, DiVitas, Siemens.
How did the company get its start? The five founders, all telecom vets, saw enterprises with out-of-control wireless expenses, being served by carriers who focused on consumers. A local cell service targeted at the enterprise offered potentially better control, savings and service.
How did the company get its name? Telecom networks referred to as "clouds" provided the idea of "stratus" (a Latin word for "layer"); the seven-layer OSI network model suggested a new layer, number 8, as the one tying all the others together.
CEO and background: Andrew Buffmire, one of the original five founders, was previously director of business development and strategy in Microsoft's Unified Communications Group. Before that he was CEO for a hosted VoIP carrier and an executive at UbiquiTel, one of Sprint's biggest affiliates.
Funding: $8.2 million, from WireFree Partners, Globespan Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Who's using the product? The vendor says it has Fortune 500 customers but won't say who or how many. It's begun targeting small to midsize businesses with 50 to 250 employees per location.

Company name: SynapSense
Founded: May 2006
Location: Folsom, Calif.
What does the company offer? SynapSoft 4.0, a wireless sensor-based system to monitor and manage energy use and cooling in big data centers. The system is a package of temperature, air pressure and energy sensors; a proprietary wireless radio network and networking software; server appliance; and gateways and server software for management, administration and analysis. The battery-powered sensors are placed all through the data center, including the subfloor area, and the readings are used to create a real-time model of the center's temperature ranges, air pressure and energy use over time. You use the results to change air-flow directions, air pressure, cut back on overcooling and make energy use overall more efficient.
Why is it worth watching? To keep data centers problem free, administrators typically over-cool them, an increasingly costly "solution" in terms of total energy spending, and losing electricity that could go to powering the center's equipment. Yahoo reported in July on the results of a trial run using SynapSense in one 8,000-square-foot room in its massive data center. With the sensor data, SynapSense sealed the "cold aisles," slowed cooling fan speeds, and raised inlet air supply temperatures to 72 degrees. Yahoo was able to reduce its cooling energy use by 21% and projected yearly energy savings of $563,000.
How did the company get its start? Working with National Science Foundation funds at University of California Davis, co-founder Raju Pandey created a highly extensible and scalable wireless sensor network architecture, which became the foundation for SynapSense. He joined forces with Peter Van Deventer, a global sales and marketing executive with Intel.
How did the company get its name? "Synapse" is a term representing the synaptic nerve system, which uses electrical pulses enabling communications through the central nervous system; "sense" for sensing.
CEO and background: Peter Van Deventer, a 10-year Intel veteran, working in the chip maker’s mobile product group, flash memories, and global sales and marketing. In the last-named role, he was involved in the rollout of the Centrino mobile platform.
Funding: $13 million, including an $11 million second round finalized in September 2007, from American River Ventures, Emerald Technology Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Nth Power and DFJ Frontier.
Who's using the product? Just under 100 customers, but none officially announced; Yahoo and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District have been identified from published sources as customers.