The Bellevue, Wa-based Consera Software has received $8.5 million to develop software that helps companies manage computer servers. Ignition Partners, Intel Capital and Matrix Partners have invested in the startup. Consera previously received $1.9 million in seed money from Ignition. The year-old company has raised a total of $10.4 million.

Consera is focused on providing server resource management solutions. “Consera's software tackles a problem facing IT managers around the world - the cost and complexity of managing their sprawling server environments. Consera's technology provides IT departments with leverage to keep up with an ever-changing technology landscape,” says Bob Lisbonne, general partner at Matrix Partners.

Consera's resource management solutions for Windows servers are targeted at midsize and large enterprises. Consera is already is testing its software with Lockheed Martin. According to the Yankee Group, nearly 40 percent of businesses now run a combination of Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 servers. In fact, the servers segment is one of the fastest growing among Microsoft's overall business. Demand for server management solutions is there. The challenge before Consera is to be nimble enough to take on industry leaders Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and IBM in the burgeoning market for server software.

The recent financing will be used for product development and marketing. The company is focused on building strategic partnerships and increasing its customer base. Founded in March 2002, Consera employs 28 people, half of who are former Microsoft employees. The company plans to add 25 people in the next 18 months.

The man behind the development of Consera's solution is its co-founder and vice president of engineering, Srinivas Murthy, a veteran in areas of systems and network management, databases, and distributed systems. He was a key member of the initial technology start-up teams at Banyan and Atria Software before holding a variety of senior management and technical roles at Microsoft.