Cloud-Based Data Protection: Infrascale Gets $16.3M Funding, Acquires Eversync

Cloud-based data protection technology developer Infrascale Thursday said it has closed a new round of funding just in time to acquire Eversync, which develops on-premise data protection appliances that interface with the cloud.

Infrascale's new Series B round of funding, worth $16.3 million, brings the total investment in the company to about $24 million, said Ken Shaw, founder and CEO of the El Segundo, Calif.-based company.

For Infrascale, the new funding is slated for growing its already profitable business, Shaw told CRN.

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"We've already been profitable for two years," he said. "That financial stability is a key part of our attractiveness to channel partners."

Mike Bell, president of Infrascale, said the funding will help the company market to partners and customers.

"I work with MSPs," Bell told CRN. "But very few know us. We will use this funding to increase marketing dollars for the channel, and to target channel awareness. MSPs can be surprised by the breadth of our technology and our program. We never intended to be a well-kept secret. We don't want to be."

Infrascale's acquisition of Salt Lake City-based Eversync also is a big part of expanding its MSP business, Shaw said.

With the acquisition, Infrascale gets Linux and Unix support as well as VMware support. More importantly, Shaw said, the company gets its first optimized on-premise deduplication appliance that can be used to restore a company's IT infrastructure either locally on in the cloud in case of a disaster.

"The appliance is inherently cloud-ready," he said. "It can tie to the cloud or to another appliance for replication."

Infrascale decided to acquire the technology rather than develop it in-house because of time-to-market considerations, Shaw said. "Our partner advisory council told us the appliance is something we need," he said. "And Linux, Unix, and VMware technology is important to our largest partners."

Getting an on-premise data protection appliance from Infrascale is something that Glen Zucker, CEO of Cheyenne, Wyoming-based OneIT, said he has been asking about for a long time.

OneIT, whose OneITDataVault business continuity solution is based on Infrascale's cloud-based data protection technology, has opportunities where such an appliance will allow it to provide a complete solution, Zucker told CRN.

NEXT: Building Infrascale For MSPs

"I feel Eversync puts Infrascale in a position to offer any organization anywhere in the world a complete solution, and not just a part of one," Zucker said. "Once the acquisition was vetted and Infrascale told me about it, the very next day we were talking to one client about what Eversync can add to OneITDataVault. The client told us we hit the ball out of the park with this one."

Zucker said OneIT has built its own on-premise data protection in the past featuring Infrascale technology, but that it could manage backups and spin up images from only two or three servers.

"It's different when a client has 250 to 500 virtual machines spread across several sites," he said. "This is a big deal for us, and a game-changer for Infrascale and any of their resellers."

Andre Soodeen, owner and managing director of Blue Chip Technologies, a Trinidad and Tobago-based solution provider whose My Hive Drive cloud storage solution is based on Infrascale technology, told CRN his company was in the process of building its own on-premise data protection appliance when Infrascale one day told it to wait.

"Now we see why," Soodeen said. "We look forward to seeing the new on-premise appliance. Companies often are online-bandwidth constrained. Customers with 10-Mbps connections could require several days to restore from the cloud after a disaster. Having a local appliance with their server images will help clients get back up as fast as possible."

Infrascale's Bell said the company's new funding and the Eversync acquisition is part of a plan to recruit more MSPs, especially those with 50-plus clients who may have 100 or more seats.

"We're finding ourselves with gravity pulling us upstream," he said. "Having a mature technology to provide server backups with the cloud is important to larger MSPs with diverse requirements and who are looking for the ability to manage data protection with one pane of glass."

Infrascale provides that single-pane-of-glass management over secure backups, cloud-based disaster recovery, cloud-based file share, endpoint backup and remote, and long-term archiving, Bell said.

"They can all be managed with one console, one look and feel," he said. "We built this from the ground up for MSPs."

PUBLISHED JUNE 5, 2014