Witsbits Announces Improvements, Opens Office In San Francisco

WitsbitsSweden based Witsbits, a cloud computing company in the Nordic and the Scandinavian region recently announced an update to their Go Cloud product. This includes a new “Boot from CD-ROM” functionality that enables physical servers to remotely connect to the Witsbits’ external Go Cloud management system. System administrators can then manage their physical servers and virtual machines from any web browser.

We thought about taking the opportunity to ask Mikael Lirbank, CEO of Witsbits, a few questions about Witsbits and the update. This gives us a better insight on Go Cloud along with where Witsbits is heading in the future. For example, Witsbits is planning to step into the US market by initiating a setup in the region.

ArcticStartup: How far has Witsbits come since 2009?

Mikael Lirbank (ML): In May 2010 we received seed funding to validate Go Cloud in market. What we’ve continue to hear from customer prospects and sales/solution partners is that Go Cloud is the most simplified and easy to use product. A key factor for customers to move forward with implementing a cloud management solution is ease of installation and ease of use with simplified management – “Time-to-Cloud” is key here so to speak.

ArcticStartup: There was a recent update at Witsbits that lets users setup one’s own internal Cloud – how does that work?

ML: With the “Time-to-Cloud”  factor in mind we have developed a completely new concept of delivering cloud management platforms. In short, you could describe Go Cloud as a “remote server/cloud management platform – delivered as a service” that allows any administrator to manage and virtualize their on-site physical servers in a matter of minutes via a web browser.

They simply plug in our free boot CD-ROM or boot USB-stick into their server, and turn the power on. The server then starts and will automatically connect to the management system – and, that’s it.

You can visit this link to see how it works.

ArcticStartup: The Cloud, given this is what your idea revolves around, how has the dependency of firms, consumers on Cloud evolved?

ML: What we can see is that Amazon’s web services play a central role when it comes to public cloud deployments in the consumer space. Amazon’s architecture is also a founding factor to new start-up solutions and products, for example RightScale and Makara (acquired by Red Hat).

For internal enterprise data centers VMware is the dominant player. Here, there is a move towards integrating internal clouds/capacity with external/public clouds for policy based scale-out capabilities (i.e. hybrid clouds). There is currently a demand for consultants that understand application deployments and hybrid cloud architecture.

Keep in mind that Witsbits is mainly focusing on supporting IT administrators and cloud operators (or to-be cloud operators) with their cloud infrastructure.

ArcticStartup: The year ahead; what is being planned for Witsbits?

ML: Our concept of delivering a cloud infrastructure via a remote management platform is so different and new, that we are registering and protecting our IP/invention in the USA. We are setting up a US based company in the Silicon Valley, this will give the company a much stronger position to address the US market, to be close to potential partners and to increase our visibility.

We are preparing a larger financing round too. We are working close with customers to validate our assumptions and we continue to collect data to improve the marketing of our highly scalable, and low-cost distribution model.