Axian, Inc. is a 15-year-old software engineering firm based in Portland, Oregon. Axian provides software consulting and contracting services as well as educational services on either a short-term or long-term contract basis to clients that use or manufacture computer systems or electronic devices, software products, information systems solutions, web-based applications, and kids' games & toys.

The company's technical staff members are skilled software developers and graphic artists who have the ability to work with a wide variety of programming languages, operating systems, hardware platforms and application programming user interfaces. A number of the staff engineers are also experienced graduate-level instructors who work part-time on engineering projects for clients while teaching or developing courses in software languages and tools, operating systems, development methodologies and systems administration to corporate engineering and IT groups.

Axian provides executive-level consulting on technology direction and selecting development platforms, in addition to working with attorneys on software- and technology-related litigation and providing expert testimony and investigative forensics services.

Axian occupies a 6,000-square-foot facility in Beaverton and serves clients in the Portland metropolitan area, the San Francisco Bay Area and other regions. Axian is a sub-chapter S corporation with three shareholders.

Principal services

Professional services to product engineering, rich media, and information systems
Axian is unique in its capability to architect, develop and integrate with a broad range of technologies. Staff engineers hold certifications, consult, contract and mentor in Red Hat (Linux), Sun Microsystems (Java and Systems Engineering), IBM WebSphere & DB2, BEA Web Logic, Microsoft (Development and Systems Engineering), Oracle and others.

Our information systems services include:

• Developing data-driven business solutions
• Developing data-based web applications
• Consulting on technology direction and selection of development platforms
• Designing and architecting n-tier enterprise systems
• Developing and integrating middleware
• Providing proactive and reactive network and systems security, including forensics investigation
• Mentoring
• Technical Writing

Engineering skills include:

• Architecting, developing or updating software
• Porting programs between operating systems
• Tuning applications for optimal performance
• Integrating or networking computer systems
• Project management
• Mentoring
• Technical Writing

Rich Media skills include:

• Windows, Macintosh, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation, and electronic toy platforms
• Imparting a unique user experience
• Providing art direction, software engineering, media coordination, sound engineering, script writing, animating, and quality assurance
• Project management
• Technical Writing

Educational services
Axian training courses are geared toward graduate-level engineers and system administrators. Course subjects include:

• Programming languages, including Java, .NET languages, C, C++, Visual Basic
• Object-oriented design and programming
• Linux system and network administration
• Linux programming essentials; Linux device drivers and kernel internals
• Parallel programming
• Intel architecture performance tuning
• Win32 API programming; MFC; COM; ActiveX; ATL
• Microsoft SQL Server system administration and MCSE courses
• Sun ONE Java technology; Solaris system administration; networkingand security, XML
• IBM WebSphere & DB2 and BEA WebLogic mentoring

Technology
Axian is strongest in six segments of software technology:

• Enterprise and Internet technologies (both Enterprise Java and .NET)
  We design extensible, scalable distributed systems that leverage current and emerging Internet computing techniques. Axian's staff is skilled at understanding how computing systems impact a company's business, and they have the ability to architect and develop multi-tier systems and integrate across all platforms, including IBM, open source and Linux, Sun and Microsoft.
• Linux
  Axian is a Red Hat Software Alliance Partner. Our Linux project work includes developing applications, porting, writing device drivers and helping clients build and deploy their Linux-compatible software products. Axian develops and teaches the Linux Developer series courses offered by Red Hat.
• Microsoft development technologies
  Axian has developed programs and taught custom courses for years using Microsoft DNA software development technologies, and more recently, listed and custom .NET courses.
• Embedded systems
  Axian engineers have extensive experience with a variety of real-time embedded operating systems such as VxWorks and Embedded Linux, and are skilled at working close to the hardware as C/C++ or assembly language programmers. Our developers have been involved in many projects for semiconductor capital equipment companies working on software design for highly advanced, multimillion-dollar systems comprised of multiple computing platforms and architectures.
• Rich Media
  Axian's Rambunctious Digital Studios business unit provides full service engineering for rich media development using proprietary cross-platform authoring software.
• High-performance computing
  Axian has more than 12 years of experience porting applications to parallel platforms and tuning performance of applications to run on multi-threaded, multi-processor systems from IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems and others.

Staff and clients
Axian's staff of architects, designers, developers, graphic artists, user interface experts, instructors, security consultants and administrative personnel serves an account base consisting of dozens of repeat clients among the 150 companies we've worked with. These include computer manufacturers, software companies, semiconductor equipment/electrical product manufacturers and large information system users such as State of Oregon, financial and health institutions, and forest products companies. Axian's long-term staff of highly experienced development, engineering and training consultants differentiates the company from standard IT consulting "body shops" and outsource organizations. With their breadth and depth of expertise, Axian staff members can fill the need for project teams or as custom-staffed architects and lead developers.

Many clients initially come to Axian seeking either software development expertise or technical training. But they find as they get to know the company that Axian staff members have the ability to both develop software and pass on their knowledge to other developers and engineers in a classroom environment—a great asset for our clients.