Issue link: https://resources.cloudbolt.io/i/1385873
N E W YO R K • B O S T O N • S A N F R A N C I S C O • WA S H I N G T O N D C • LO N D O N R E P O R T R E P R I N T Business model CloudBolt, based in North Bethesda, Maryland, provides self-service IT and DevOps for enterprises deploying hybrid cloud environments. CloudBolt was founded in 2012. It raised $1.5m in private funding from B7 founder Peter Thorp (originally CloudBolt's CEO), and raised a $2.1m convertible note in Q3 2015. As one of the few remaining independent cloud management platforms in the market, CloudBolt landed a $23m series A round of funding in 2018 from Insight Partners, which also funded the acquisitions of SovLabs and Kumulos. CloudBolt appointed Jeff Kukowski CEO in April. Kukowski was formerly CEO at SecureAuth, while Patrick Malaperiman arrived as a new VP of sales in EMEA, based in London. CloudBolt does 30% of its business outside North America – 70% of its business goes through the channel, a figure it's seeking to increase. 451 Research estimates CloudBolt is nearing $20m revenue – we anticipate Kumulos brings a single-digit percentage uplift to this. The addition of Kumulos' 50 staff (mostly engineers) brings CloudBolt to 170 employees, and takes its customer count beyond 160, including a significant number of new MSPs. Competition The end of general support for VMware vRA 7.x is approaching. SovLabs brought CloudBolt an 'easy button' for VMware customers that are looking to migrate to vRA 8. The Kumolus addition enables CloudBolt to better target accounts without vRA. VMware vRealize Automation is competition as well as opportunity. Other competitors are RedHat CloudForms, Morpheus Data, Snow Software and Turbonomic. SWOT Analysis S T R E N G T H S CloudBolt is adding new capabilities at a clip as it extends beyond basic cloud management, responding here to customer demand for governance as efficiency, security and automation become more important than ever, and priorities are reframed for the rest of the year. W E A K N E S S E S As the conversion from on-premises to hybrid clouds and hosted environments gathers pace, the market for tools that can help enterprises navigate their journeys through these environments is growing and heating up. CloudBolt is one of the few remaining independent 'full service' cloud management vendors, but will need to accelerate in a market with many larger competitors. O P P O R T U N I T I E S The CMP market has ignited on the industry replatforming to hybrid IT, multi-cloud and cloud-native, and deals continue to be printed. The question is when CloudBolt will gather the necessary momentum and customer base to become prey rather than hunter. T H R E AT S The market remains very fragmented, with customers facing a massive amount of vendor options for cloud management and automation across the spectrum of operations and development. The key to success will be finding the right combinations, and operationalizing them to deliver the benefits as advertised by their suppliers – speed, scale, agility and cost.