dinCloud Continues Record Growth, Focuses on Cloud Storage

There are many cloud services available to the SMB market today: Software-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, as well as cloud storage and cloud backup, among others.

For cloud-based infrastructure provider dinCloud, 2012 was the year of cloud adoption, as the company witnessed accelerated adoption of cloud-based IT infrastructure, and more acceptance of hosted virtual desktops. In addition to announcing a new CEO this year, dinCloud more than doubled their revenue and leveraged its relationships with Microsoft (News - Alert), Trend Micro and NetApp to become a major player in the cloud services market. 

Companies like dinCloud are not trying to take power or resources away from IT, as the cloud must be a co-managed environment. The dinCloud team believes in making the job easier for IT through the simplification of IT management with the company’s proprietary cloud orchestration software, known as dinManage.

TMCnet recently caught up with Ali Din, senior vice president and CMO of dinCloud, to discuss cloud adoption trends and what’s next for the growing company. dinCloud serves the segment of the SMB market that ranges from 25 to 1,500 employees. In 2012, the company has seen accelerated adoption of cloud-based IT infrastructure, and more acceptance of hosted virtual desktops.

“In particular, the cloud space saw several notable acquisitions that are very telling of the industry: VMware acquiring Nicira shows the importance of virtual networking (dinCloud uses Vyatta); Xsigo was purchased by Oracle (a dinStack coalition partner); and Dell purchased Quest Software (News - Alert),” Din told TMCnet.

“This is a hot space, and large players are realizing there is a gap in current solutions. For us, these acquisitions are positive because these organizations now have a bigger team and more funding to grow and provide reach into the marketplace. Additionally, Ingram Micro’s (News - Alert) Cloud Marketplace has become a dominant force, and we were fortunate to be selected among over a dozen competitors as the hosted virtual desktop of choice this summer.”

This year was one of explosive growth for dinCloud, which has increased revenue year over year from $350,000 in 2011 to over $2 million in 2012 and has successfully retained all of its customers. In the beginning of the year, the company also announced a new CEO, Kevin Schatzle.

“He has helped shape the company’s messaging and helped the company focus and deliver more value to customers. We have also forged relationships with key vendors that support the emerging cloud services market including Microsoft, Trend Micro (News - Alert) and NetApp. We leveraged these relationships to take dinCloud, a young startup from zero awareness, to being a major player in the cloud services market,” Din explained. “In the summer, Ingram Micro, the world’s largest distributor, announced it selected dinCloud’s hosted virtual desktop. We also launched and filed a patent for dinManage, our cloud orchestration and management platform. This helps us scale and support our channel model.”

Looking ahead, dinCloud is planning on more than doubling revenue again in 2013 and gaining significant traction with existing sales channel.

“We plan to work with a few large players to roll out our services and expand our cloud storage offering. One area of keen interest is subscription-based backup and disaster recovery,” Din said. “Additionally, 2013 will be focused on growth, which is already in triple-digit territory from 2011 to 2012.”

As for predictions for the tech industry going into 2013, Din said mobility undoubtedly is a constant evolution, with the rise of tablets changing how people interact with their digital workspace.

“But we expect people to realize that Ultrabooks are a minimum to be productive. We expect cloud adoption to continue to build in areas of infrastructure, desktop and cloud services,” he added. “The SMB market will hasten to adopt business provisioning with its 30 to 50 percent cost savings, elimination of CAPEX needs, and enterprise class availability and security, but in order for this to occur, the channel of VARs, MSPS and SI’s will begin to form more strategic alliances with cloud providers.”

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