NetApp has acquired CloudCheckr and its cost-optimising public cloud management CMx platform to expand its Spot by NetApp CloudOps offering.
CloudCheckr’s software analyses the costs for AWS, Azure and GCP clouds, looking at billing details for multiple accounts and provides a full set of a customers cloud account details, including resources, configurations, permissions, security, compliance and changes. Customers should be able to analyse and control their cloud costs better with this software.
An announcement quote from Anthony Lye, EVP and GM of NetApp’s Public Cloud Services business unit, said: “By adding cloud billing analytics, cost management capabilities, cloud compliance and security to our CloudOps platform through the acquisition of CloudCheckr, we are enabling organisations to deploy infrastructure and business applications faster while reducing their capital and operational costs. This is a critical step forward in our FinOps strategy … Simply put, NetApp continues to empower customers to achieve more cloud at less cost.”
Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed. As CloudCheckr’s total funding is $67.4 million, and it’s been growing fast, and is backed by private equity, we would expect a $200 million to $300 million acquisition cost range.
NetApp said that the acquisition extends Spot by NetApp’s cloud FinOps offerings by combining cost visibility and reporting from the CloudCheckr platform with continuous cost optimisation and managed services from Spot by NetApp. It suggests public cloud customers will be better able to understand and continuously improve their cloud resources.
Lye has written a “More cloud. Less cost” blog to discuss the acquisition. In it he writes: “CloudCheckr will add cost visibility with automated actions, secure configurations, deep insights, and detailed reporting to our Spot portfolio’s continuous optimisation.” It will help them control their public cloud financial operations or FinOps.
A second NetApp blog, “Building a Long-Term, Comprehensive FinOps Journey: Spot by NetApp + CloudCheckr” by Spot founder and Spot by NetApp CEO Amiram Shachar explains more.
CloudCheckr history
CloudCheckr was started up Rochester, NY, in 2011 by COO Aaron Klein and previous CEO and now Exec Chairman Aaron Newman. Klein gave up the COO position at the end of 2017 and he and Newman founded BlocWatch, a SaaS offering to manage blockchain environments. CloudCheckr has taken in a total of $67.4 million in funding through a 2012 seed round for $400,000, a two-part A-round in 2013 for $2 million and (slight delay!) $50 million in 2017 and a 2019 B-round raising just $15 million. Both the late A-round and B-round were led by Level Equity Management, which operates as a private equity firm.
At the time of the $50 million A-round funding event CloudCheckr serviced over 150 AWS and Azure authorised resellers and provided support to nearly 40 per cent of all AWS Premier Consulting Partners. Its direct client roster included managing over $1 billion in cloud spend for enterprises such as Nasdaq, Siemens, and Regeneron.
By B-round time CloudCheckr said it was experiencing explosive growth, doubling customers, and achieving a 5x increase in revenue over the last three years. It then claimed a full 40 per cent of the top 50 MSPs, ranked by ChannelE2E, were powered by CloudCheckr.
CloudCheckr is led by CEO Tim McKinnon, who joined in June 2019, two months before the $50 million B-round. He had been President and CEO at Sonian, an Amazon- and VC-funded company, acquired by Barracuda Networks.
Interestingly Nutanix Chief Commercial Officer Tarkan Maner sits on CloudCheckr’s board. He was appointed at B-round time. At that time CloudCheckr said “Tarkan has had many successful exits and held executive roles at Nexenta (acquired by DDN), Dell, Wyse (acquired by Dell), CA (acquired by Broadcom), IBM, Quest, and Sterling Software (acquired by CA).” It seems that old Maner magic, aided by McKinnon, has worked again.
