RPath

rPath, Inc. was a technology company based in Raleigh, North Carolina that developed technology to automate the process of constructing (or packaging), deploying and updating software. rPath modeled and managed components and dependencies under version control. It acted as a model-driven and version-controlled repository and software distribution hub.

In November, 2012, rPath was acquired by SAS Institute. Shortly after this, rPath Linux was discontinued.

rPath was founded in April 2005 and was originally known for packaging applications as virtual appliances for its independent software vendors (ISVs) and end-user customers. It was co-founded by Erik Troan, co-author of Red Hat Package Manager (RPM), a popular Linux package management system. Troan had left Red Hat in 2004 to found a company called Specifix. The first CEO was Bill Marshall. Original investors were North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners, with $6.4 million in funding disclosed in September 2005. A $9.1 million investment in February 2007 including new investor Wakefield Group was disclosed. A $10 million investment was disclosed on June 24, 2008. A $7 million investment was disclosed in October, 2010. The company headquarters were in Raleigh, North Carolina.

rPath was one of the first to market a software appliance. In 2009, rPath made a transition to selling to enterprise IT organizations. IT automation was seen as the codification of runbooks by some, but rPath industrialized the operational aspects of the data center by modeling software configurations.. rPath provided a commercial version control platform for deployed software systems. rPath was not a source code management system. Rather, it was an operational management system that applies the principles and disciplines of source code control to the management of deployable software systems—specifically, system manifests, packages, binaries, policies and system configurations. Version control aids systems to be quickly reproduced, patched and updated, rollback-ed and reported on.

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