Microsoft this week has made another big addition to its Azure cloud computing platform. The software giant has just acquired Cycle Computing, a cloud orchestration and data management Startup.
According to TechCrunch, the Redmond-based company has plans to integrate the startup’s high-performance computing technology to its cloud computing service. Microsoft has bought the startup to enable its customers to use high-performance computing technology and other "big iron" computing capabilities.
The software giant has described the newly-acquired company as the leader in cloud computing orchestration technology, and that the deal is part of the company’s strategy to make HPC and other computing capabilities accessible to Azure customers.
The company has not disclosed the financial details of the deal.
Cycle Computing, a close look at the newly-acquired company
Founded in 2005 and based in Stamford, Connecticut, Cycle Computing develops software for orchestrating computing and storage resources for cloud computing environments. The company’s flagship product Cycle Computing makes and simplifies the process of deploying HPC technology on virtualized environments, internal grids and in the cloud.
The startup's flagship product manages the orchestration of workflow execution, provisioning of IT infrastructure, job queue management, full process monitoring and logging, automated and efficient data placement, and improves utilization.
It also supports Amazon Web Services, Google Compute Engine, and Microsoft Azure.
Microsoft said that it will continue to support Cycle Computing customers using AWS and Google Cloud Platform. The company’s flagship product has been used to deploy storage and virtual clusters for government, universities, and some Fortune 500 companies.
The company has not provided many details about how or when its product will be incorporated into the software giant’s computing service, Microsoft Azure. But Microsoft announced that Cycle Computing’s technology for managing Linux and Windows compute and workloads will integrate into Azure Big Compute.
Newly-acquired company another big addition to Azure
With Cycle Computing under its own roof, the software company gets to add another layer of features and big computing capabilities to Azure services, which already included Cloudyn. Microsoft has recently acquired the cloud monitoring and analytics startup Cloudyn. The company hasn’t provided any details about the financial terms of the deal, but reports said that the software giant has spent around $50 to $70 million for the startup.
Israeli-based Cloudyn provides tools that help customers monitor usage to come out with a more efficient experience. This could be a big help to Microsoft Azure’s enterprise customers. Azure currently falls behind AWS in the brutal cloud computing market, but Microsoft holds a significant chunk of the highly lucrative enterprise productivity market.
