Start-Up Exoprise Assesses Cloud Readiness
Start-up Exoprise Systems has come out of stealth mode. Its first product is aimed at helping customers determine whether they should move off Microsoft Exchange to a cloud-based alternative.
CloudReady Insight is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering that monitors an Exchange implementation with the aim of determining whether an organization should remain with the premises-based version or move to an alternative, such as Google Apps for Business or a hosted version of Exchange.
"It's a platform for understanding everything that you have about your on-premise infrastructure, total cost of ownership, end user readiness [and] reliability, and in all of those areas we help you compare what you have from your existing infrastructure to what's available in the cloud," said Exoprise founder and CEO Jason Lieblich.
The service actually points to a customer's existing Active Directory and Exchange servers and analyzes all of the asset information it can collect. It also goes through all the mailboxes. "We help segment your user base and try to show you whether or not you should stay on Microsoft's stuff or if you could adopt alternative solutions," he said.
The service also determines whether an organization has a large number of power users, a finding that might sway a recommendation toward sticking with a premises-based version of Exchange, Lieblich said.
There is a free version that provides "simple breakdowns" and a paid version that offers more detailed reports, starting at $10 per user in an organization. Over the next few weeks, the company will release a product that lets customers orchestrate and automate deployments of cloud services, and at the end of April it will offer a monitoring tool.
The Waltham, Mass.-based company was launched two years ago by Lieblich, who previously serviced as CTO of virtualization at Citrix Systems. The company is small; it only has five employees, though Lieblich said he expects to have 10 later this year.
Exoprise has $1 million in funding from Fairhaven Capital and a number of angel investors.
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 04/06/2011 at 1:14 PM