The move to the cloud has been lauded for its ability to provide people with networking resources on demand. Indeed, you could think of Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) and the like as utilities. But while you can switch off a light or turn off a faucet to manage your power and water usage and cost, there’s no easy way to hit the off button on the cloud when it’s not in use. At least there wasn’t until the introduction of ParkMyCloud, says Jay Chapel, CEO of the Dulles, Va.-based startup.
ParkMyCloud has attracted the business of such customers as Capital One, McDonald’s, Neustar, and Sage Software (News - Alert). That’s with good reason: ParkMyCloud can slash AWS cloud computing costs by 60 percent or more. Chapel tells Cloud Computing Magazine that ParkMyCloud has already provided its customer base with $2.4 million in annual savings.
The ParkMyCloud platform does that by enabling its customers to turn their cloud servers off when they’re not in use, explains Chapel, adding that parking makes sense about 60 to 65 percent of the time. The company charges for the service based on the number of managed instances. Each instance costs $1 to $3 per month; the company provides instances in increments of up to 29, between 30 and 99, 100 to 200, 300 and 499, or beyond. And the average monthly spend is $185.
This fall ParkMyCloud enhanced its platform with zero-touch parking capability. That allows customers to quickly and easily set their parking schedules.
Up until recently ParkMyCloud has brought its solution to market exclusively via a direct model. But now the company is adding channel partners and distributors. For example, ParkMyCloud recently forged agreements with Avnet, a major distributor in the U.S.; Masterson Technology Ltd. of Hong Kong; tecRacer of Germany; and Too Many Clouds of the U.K.
ParkMyCloud also recently garnered new funding to the tune of $1.65 million. That came from Cofounders Capital out of the Research Triangle Park, N.C. area, and some individual investors.
The company, which started life in 2013 as a cloud management platform company called Ostrato, plans to use that funding for marketing and sales and to expand its current platform to support addition cloud solutions. The aim is for ParkMyCloud to add support for Microsoft (News - Alert) Azure in the fourth quarter of this year and for Google Compute Engine in the first quarter of 2017. ParkMyCloud also expects to expand from compute to also include database and storage solutions.
Edited by Alicia Young
