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Spiceworks is a professional network for the
information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...
(IT) industry that is headquartered in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. The company was founded in January 2006 by Scott Abel, Jay Hallberg, Greg Kattawar, and Francis Sullivan to build IT management software. Spiceworks is a
online community
where users can collaborate and seek advice from one another, and also engage in a marketplace to purchase IT-related services and products. The network is estimated to be used by more than six million IT professionals and 3,000 technology vendors. The company's free
proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...
is written in
Ruby on Rails Ruby on Rails (simplified as Rails) is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby under the MIT License. Rails is a model–view–controller (MVC) framework, providing default structures for a database, a web service, and web pa ...
, and runs exclusively on
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
. The software discovers IP-addressable devices and includes help desk functionality and an integrated knowledge base.


History

The company was formed in January 2006 by Scott Abel, Jay Hallberg, Greg Kattawar and Francis Sullivan, former executives at Motive. The company received $5 million in series A funding from
Austin Ventures Austin Ventures (AV) is a private equity firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments in business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services companies nationally with a focus on ...
in June 2006. Spiceworks' series B funding round was completed in August 2007 and included $8 million from
Shasta Ventures Shasta Ventures is an early-stage venture capital investment firm located in Silicon Valley that invests in enterprise and technology consumer startups. It is located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. Funds Shasta's second fund of US$250 milli ...
and Austin Ventures. The company's $18 million series C funding round in January 2010 was headed by Institutional Venture Partners. In April 2011, Spiceworks received $25 million in series D funding from Adams Street Partners and
Tenaya Capital Tenaya Capital is a venture capital firm with offices in Portola Valley, California, and Wellesley, Massachusetts. Founded in 1995 as Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Tenaya spun out to become an independent firm in 2009 following Lehman's ban ...
and a 2014 series E financing round worth $57 million led by
Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...
. In 2012, it opened its European headquarters in
London, England London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. The company celebrated its tenth anniversary in January 2016 and announced plans to add 100 additional employees during the year. However, those plans were changed and in June 2016 the company announced that it was laying off approximately 12 percent of its workforce. In addition to the layoffs, several employees in leadership positions at Spiceworks left the company to join former CEO Scott Abel in founding a new startup, Resly Labs. Resly Labs later changed their name to Umuse.
Ziff Davis Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. Founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology- and health-oriented media websites, online shopping-related servi ...
acquired Spiceworks in September 2019.


Software

In July 2006, it released a public beta. The 1.0 version of Spiceworks was released in November 2006. It focused on simplifying the process of taking inventory, monitoring networks, and generating reports for IT professionals at small and medium-sized businesses. By the end of its first year, Spiceworks had 120,000 users. The company released the 2.0 version of its software in December 2007. Subsequent versions followed, leading up to version 7.0 in 2013. The company released a free network monitor product in December 2014. In June 2021, Spiceworks Desktop 7.5, became unavailable for download, and at the end of the year, end of life. The company released Cloud Help Desk solution.


Business model

Spiceworks offers its professional network and software free to users. The company generates most of its revenue through the sale of ads displayed on its network. A small percentage of its revenue is generated through purchases of IT products and services made through the Spiceworks platform.


Corporate identity

The official mascot for Spicework is "SpiceRex." SpiceRex is an orange
Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...
. The creation was a result of Spiceworks community member, IT pro, and blogger Andy "akp982" Phelps.


Spiceworld


Austin

Spiceworks has hosted SpiceWorld, a conference for its users, every year since 2008. The conference was originally held at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater. The conference later moved to the AT&T Executive Education & Conference Center at the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
. Starting with SpiceWorld 2013 and on, the conferences have been held at the Austin Convention Center.


London

Spiceworks opened up a London office in 2012. The first SpiceWorld London took place in May 2012 in Vinopolis in London's
Bankside Bankside is an area of London, England, within the London Borough of Southwark. Bankside is located on the southern bank of the River Thames, east of Charing Cross, running from a little west of Blackfriars Bridge to just a short distance befo ...
.


Spiceworld 2020

Spiceworld hosted its first virtual event in the year 2020 to overcome the pandemic challenge. This is well received by the overall IT community where they participated and engaged well. Spiceworld 2020 had more than 3000 participants. This was held from 15th September to 17th September.


Spiceworld 2021

Due to pandemic Spiceworld was conducted online. The key-note speaker for Spiceworld 2021 was
Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname Woz, is an American technology entrepreneur, electrical engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, and inventor. In 1976, he co-founded Apple Inc., Apple Computer with ...
. This annual event was conducted from September 27th - 29th, 2021.


Awards and recognition

* 2007 – ''
PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and continues . Overview ''PC Mag ...
's'' Editors' Choice award * 2007 – IT Solution of the Year by InnoTech Conference * 2009 – Spiceworks named ''
InformationWeek ''InformationWeek'' is a digital magazine which conducts corresponding face-to-face events, virtual events, and research. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United State ...
'' Startup 50 Company. * 2009 – Spiceworks named "Top 10 B-to-B Web Site" by ''BtoB Magazine'' * 2010 – Spiceworks wins PCMag.com Best of 2010 Award * 2010 – Spiceworks wins six Windows IT Pro Editors’ Best and Community Choice Awards


See also

*
Comparison of help desk issue tracking software This article is a comparison of notable issue tracking systems used primarily for help desks and service desks rather than for bug tracking or project management. {, class="sortable wikitable" style="width: auto; text-align: center" ! Syste ...
*
Comparison of network monitoring systems The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of Wikipedia:Notability, notable network monitoring systems. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. Features Legend ; Pro ...
*
System administration An IT administrator, system administrator, sysadmin, or admin is a person who is responsible for the upkeep, configuration, and reliable operation of computer systems, especially multi-user computers, such as servers. The system administr ...


References

{{Reflist, 30em Companies based in Austin, Texas Computer companies established in 2006 System administration American companies established in 2006