Venture Taps Open for AppSense, DynamicOps
Lately, I've been seeing some high-level similarities between the housing market at its height in 2005-2006 and the desktop virtualization/cloud markets of today. Like the housing market, desktop virtualization--which includes VDI--and cloud computing have been expanding rapidly with seemingly no end in sight. The big difference, of course, is that these two high-flying IT markets have been proliferating in the face of our worst recession since 1929, which makes their growth even more impressive. Still, it's hard not to wonder when the bubble will burst.
The only things bursting at AppSense and DynamicOps are champagne corks, as both companies received venture-backed financial shots in the arm during the past 10 days. First, AppSense reported a $70 million infusion from Goldman Sachs, and then DynamicOps followed with news of an $11 million boost from Sierra Ventures.
AppSense has hung its hat on "user virtualization," in which personalization is managed independently of the desktop and applied on demand to personalize desktops. The company closed out 2010 with record revenues, a slew of high-profile customers such as ESPN, JPMorgan Chase and United Airlines, and announced a new distribution agreement with Ingram Micro. AppSense is one of those companies that gets other larger companies, such as VMware, talking about them.
DynamicOps has been cashing in on the lucrative private cloud market with its DynamicOps Cloud Automation Center, which enables enterprise orchestration of service delivery in private and public clouds by providing automated delivery and management of on-demand IT services. Despite competition from Quest's Surgient subsidiary and a raft of automation software start-ups, DynamicOps reported 200 percent year-over-year revenue growth from '10 to '11.
Shakeout? What shakeout? An optimist would say that the success of these two companies only lends credence to claims that the virtualization and cloud markets are recession-proof and that unbounded riches await the companies who stick it out through the hard times.
Posted by Bruce Hoard on 03/03/2011 at 12:48 PM