Joyent Gets a Boost For the Cloud

Cloud computing has been having as many ups and downs as a roller coaster. News that cloud firm Joyent is getting $75 million to go global is definitely an upswing.

The cloud is evolving, to the point that the term the cloud may soon be outdated. As multiple cloud options develop, offered by a multitude of vendors, the ecosystem that IT professionals can (and must) engage is evolving as well.

Aiming for Global Growth

As reported by Sarah Perez at TechCrunch, Joyent has won $85 million in new funding. The boost comes largely from a European venture group that includes global telecom powerhouse Telefonica. This hefty infusion will nearly quadruple the firm's resources and is headlined as permitting it to "pursue global growth."

The company provides a cloud computing toolkit solution, SmartDataCenter, and offers public cloud services to customers including Dell, Kamam, and LinkedIn. It is also a prime contributor to open source project SmartOS, which powers its SmartDataCenter offering.

An online listing of competitors appears to be dated or incorrect (it focuses on Ruby on Rails, not cloud services). But judging from its solutions offerings, Joyent is in the mix across a broad range of cloud provision and support services, with potential competitors ranging from Amazon to Salesforce.com.

According to Khaled Bichara of Accelero Capital, "[the firm] is providing solutions to some of the toughest problems in cloud computing, such as cloud performance, resiliency and security." In statements, Joyent speaks of rolling out "seamlessly connected high-performance clouds."

A Weather Report for the Cloud

In the past year, cloud computing has not always seen clear skies above. Large public cloud providers have suffered mishaps ranging from security breaches to actual lightning strikes that knocked data centers offline. Technical progress in servers and provisioning has made on-site data storage more affordable.

These developments have largely killed off the simplistic notion that the cloud would let small and midsized businesses (SMBs) do away with IT. It turns out that supple and sophisticated IT capabilities are needed to interface with and manage cloud services.

On the other hand, reports of the cloud's demise have also turned out to be premature. A combination of technical factors such as the power of virtualization and business considerations such as load variations are keeping the cloud in play. In fact, "the cloud" as a single abstract entity is giving way to a richer cloud ecosystem.

We now speak of not only the public cloud but also private clouds and hybrid clouds. The range and variety of Joyent's offerings indicate that cloud providers now need to be multifaceted. How will your company engage with this more nuanced cloud ecosystem?