USinternetworking filed to go public barely a year after it was founded, promising to run a company's software so the company did not have to. Its prospectus said it on the inside cover: "At last, running enterprise applications doesn't require you to run anything but your business." In 1999 big software meant big projects, with servers, consultants and months of setup. USi offered the same programs over a network for a monthly fee.

An Annapolis Data Center Bet

USi was incorporated in Delaware in January 1998 and based in Annapolis, Maryland, with Christopher McCleary as chairman and chief executive. It called itself an application service provider. USi bought licenses for business software from large vendors, installed it in its own data centers and ran it for customers over its network. Customers paid a monthly fee for software, hardware and support together. The model needed huge spending up front, before the monthly fees added up.

Too Early, Too Much Debt

USi priced its IPO at $21 a share in April 1999 and sold more stock in early 2000. Then the dot-com crash dried up funding for young internet companies, including many of its customers. Building data centers ahead of demand left USi with heavy debts. On January 7, 2002, USi and four subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 in Maryland. USi deregistered its public shares that May.

Cover: The Forge, Passage du Dragon, James McNeill Whistler. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a forge (the engine room behind the software).