This is very interesting; as the offending writer, I had no idea this would sound so strange to so many.
I did some research, and I found that the term seems to be used almost exclusively by two communities:
- Computer systems and web development
- Government and military organizations
Given that I have a computer science background with more than a decade of government service, I suppose it makes the expression sound especially natural to my ear. (As I've said in other answers and comments, the longer you are familiar with some expression, the easier it is to presume others are familiar with it, too.)
Here are some usages I found scouring the web. As one can see, each instance can be tied back to one the two realms I have mentioned – government organizations, or technical support:
- The Wyoming Military Department will stand up a new directorate
- “The economy and tourism in the region Batur and Kintamani Bangli will be more advanced, because behind Mount Batur, it will stand up a new airport,” said Wacik.
- This fall, AMC will stand up a new command that will coordinate the activities of the Army’s extensive web of labs and technology centers
- In two years, we’ve restructured twice around getting to the right market-focused, customer-focused type of organization. We stood up a new business development organization, and we were able to move our win rates from the low teens to close to 50 percent
- In anticipation of my upcoming iPhone application release, I figured it was time to stand up a new website
- For example, the marketing department wants to run a new ad campaign, needs to stand up a new website, [or] maybe it needs to put up a new shopping portal to respond to a threat from a competitor.
- The customer stood up a new server and proceeded to restore the system from tape backup.
So, yes, the expression "stood up" means roughly "set up, organized, and opened for business," but, evidently, it might not be a familiar expression outside of those two domains.