Cloud computing: Can start-up trump Amazon in the cloud?
Cloud computing start-up Joyent has $85 million in venture funding and a new deal with Telef贸nica to compete with Amazon in cloud computing services.
Cloud computing start-up Joyent has $85 million in venture funding and a new deal with Telef贸nica to compete with Amazon in cloud computing services.
Cloud computing startup聽Joyent聽has raised a humongous $85 million round of funding, which will help the company with its plan of out-innovating Amazon in cloud computing technology.
Joyent provides聽infrastructure cloud computing services聽for customers like LinkedIn, THQ, Gilt Groupe and Kabam. The company鈥檚 core offering will now be enhanced with a wide-ranging partnership with Telef贸nica Digital, the global business division of London-based telecommunications company聽Telef贸nica. With the new partnership, Joyent will be able to bring its services to more countries thanks to Telef贸nica data centers throughout Europe and Latin America.
Joyent CEO David Young enjoys colorfully differentiating his company from his largest competitor聽Amazon, by far the largest provider of cloud computing services in the world. Young describes Amazon鈥檚 cloud computing technology as a 鈥渏unk yard鈥� where all sorts of technologies have been 鈥渢aped together.鈥�
鈥淎mazon is the Kodak of the cloud,鈥� Young told VentureBeat. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to dump on Amazon, but I just don鈥檛 think you can look to a book seller and grocery store for cloud innovation. On the other hand, we鈥檙e building a cloud alliance around the globe.鈥�
The new massive round was led by Weather Investment II Group, with Telef贸nica Digital, El Dorado Ventures, Epic Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Intel Capital, and Liberty Global also participating. Joyent鈥檚 last funding round聽occurred in Sept. 2010 and totaled $15 million. In its history, the company has raised around $115 million.
San Francisco-based Joyent was founded in 2004 and has about 150 employees. It also has offices in Vancouver, Singapore and Geneva. The company plans to announce other 鈥渆xciting鈥� partnerships in the near future that will enable the company鈥檚 services in even more countries.
See also:
TRUSTe secures $15M for increased online privacy聽managment聽
SeatGeek partners with Hearst, powering ticket search in their major sports聽markets