Ed Byrne, CloudVertical
One of the world’s largest enterprise IT software players Citrix has provided an Irish cloud software firm with a convertible note for an undisclosed sum which gives it the option of taking equity in the firm at a later stage.
CloudVertical, formerly known as Digital Mines, which was founded by ex-Hosting365 executive Ed Byrne, allows firms to see exactly how much they are spending on cloud infrastructure.
Byrne describes the technology as a kind of Google Analytics for IT managers.
He points out that out of the US$1.7trn spent every year worldwide on IT, only 30pc of cloud infrastructure is properly utilised despite the theory that cloud is supposed to be 100pc capital efficient.
Byrne reasons that a move to a 60pc utilisation rate would result in savings of US$500bn across the IT sector.
“People liken cloud to utilities like electricity with claims that you pay for what you use. The difference is with IT you pay for what you provision.
“We reckon firms could actually make savings of up to 70pc if they were only using what they need when they need it. Despite moving to the cloud, firms are still paying for machines that are running but not being utilised.
“Where we come in is we help firms to meter and analyse usage. We look at three things: capacity, usage and cost. We help businesses contextualise their cloud performance and save money.”
Byrne said that the backing of Citrix will be transformative for CloudVertical and will give the company considerable credibility in the market.
“From our perspective, Citrix is the leader in this market. The cloud stack is the dominant platform right now and as a start-up getting to work with Citrix’s’s sales and products teams is a great opportunity.
“The challenge for an enterprise start-up is actually getting into the enterprise. The Citrix support adds a lot of credibility and will open a lot of doors for us,” Byrne said.
Ireland’s digital leaders will gather to discuss cloud computing and the big data revolution at the Cloud Capital Forum on Friday, 23 November, at the Convention Centre Dublin
