Opalis Software said on Wednesday it received $8.5 million in a third round of funding led by Sierra Ventures, along with existing investors, bringing the data center automation vendor’s total funding to $20 million.

The company plans to use the extra funds to expand its sales and marketing efforts.

“The last round was primarily for engineering and the initial marketing and sales organization,” said Opalis CEO Scott Broder. “Primarily these funds will be used to expand our channel and direct sales, as well as increase marketing with partners.”

Sierra joined existing investors BDC Venture Capital and VenGrowth Private Equity Partners in the latest round of funding. Mark Fernandes and David C. Schwab of Sierra Ventures will join the board of the Toronto-based company.

“There’s a very big opportunity in data center automation,” said Mr. Fernandes. “We’ve seen a lot of large enterprises consolidate their data centers, and in that process a lot of mundane processes need to be automated. Opalis plays a role in automating processes and integrating a bunch of management tools that companies have.”

He said that Sierra went through a standard due diligence process in evaluating Opalis as a funding candidate.

Customer List

Opalis also boasts a strong list of 550 customers, including Toyota, Harley Davidson, State Street, Nokia, Xerox, BlueCross BlueShield, and Woolworths.

The previous round of funding for Opalis closed in January 2004, according to Mr. Broder. The current round officially closed two or three weeks ago.

“It went pretty quickly,” said Mr. Broder. “There’s a tremendous amount of interest in the data center automation space now, and it’s a tremendously competitive situation.

“We selected Sierra Ventures as well as Sierra selecting us,” he added. “We thought Sierra would have a lot of what it would take to bring the company to the next level and accelerate the momentum we had in the marketplace.”