Intel Corp. is stepping up its support for free software designed to help companies achieve the kinds of benefits offered by cloud services from Amazon Inc., Google Inc. or Microsoft Corp.

The big chip maker on Monday plans to announce its lead role in a $100 million infusion into Mirantis Inc., which sells a subscription version of the open-source software OpenStack. Intel, whose venture-capital arm first invested in Mirantis in 2013, is contributing, along with other investors, to a $75 million funding round. The company also is committing additional money to finance future technology development by the Silicon Valley startup.

Like many other open-source products, OpenStack is available in free and commercial versions in an arrangement that helps customers avoid being locked into one vendor. The program, often described as a data-center operating system, offers a software dashboard to help companies manage collections of server systems, storage devices and networking equipment.

The software, which competes with offerings from Microsoft and VMware Inc., has been making slow progress since it was introduced in 2010 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Rackspace Hosting Inc., a provider of cloud computing services.

Intel's new commitment, while not decisive, could help make the product more appealing to corporate users.

Mirantis, based in Mountain View, Calif., boasts customers including AT&T Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., PayPal Holdings Inc., Gap Inc. and Ericsson AB.

Intel, whose chips power most servers, has long worked with software makers to develop products that could help spur sales of its own technology. Last month, the company pledged to make a series of investments under an initiative called Cloud for All to help corporate data centers emulate the efficiency of cloud services like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Diane Bryant, a senior vice president spearheading Intel's initiative, has argued that more companies would set up cloud-style operations if software developers tackled technical shortcomings with existing products. Intel expects Mirantis to help modify OpenStack to minimize service outages.

"There are targeted things that we want to see Mirantis go do," said Jonathan Donaldson, an Intel vice president who is general manager for software-defined infrastructure.

The collaboration bears similarities to a deal announced in 2014 between Intel and Cloudera, a prominent supplier of an open-source program called Hadoop that helps companies collect and analyze large amounts of data. Intel invested $740 million in that transaction.

Mirantis, founded in 2000, originally provided a variety of technology services and in 2011 branched into cloud computing, said Alex Freedland, the company's co-founder and president. Its workforce has grown from 150 to 750 employees, Mr. Freedland said.

Beyond Intel, investors in the latest funding round include Ericsson, the venture-capital arm of software maker SAP SE, August Capital and Insight Venture Partners. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is investing in the startup for the first time, Mirantis said. The latest round comes less than a year after Mirantis raised $100 million in a funding round led by August and Insight.

Mirantis, which has raised about $220 million to date, hasn't disclosed its valuation. Mr. Freedland said it is more interested in demonstrating to potential customers that it has the financial resources to compete with larger companies in the enterprise software market.

"That is why it is important—to signal to the world that we are here to stay," Mr. Freedland said.

Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com

 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 24, 2015 00:35 ET (04:35 GMT)

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