Cloud-based systems management company ScaleXtreme recently launched two new versions of its platform for cloud server management. We talked to Nand Mulchandani, CEO of ScaleXtreme, about cloud management, the new platform and what’s next.
What do the platforms do for enterprises?
ScaleXtreme Xpress and ScaleXtreme Xpert fill a large need for simple and scalable systems management. ScaleXtreme Xpress is the core of our business. It is a free, fully functioning solution that allows customers to manage all of their servers running across both private and public clouds. Customers can upgrade to ScaleXtreme Xpert with at any time with no re-installation or re-registration necessary.
What are the differences between Xpress and Xpert?
The first key difference is that ScaleXtreme Xpress is free. It is suited to environments with a single systems administrator. ScaleXtreme supports connections to cloud providers including Amazon EC2, Bluelock, and Rackspace, as well as OpenStack- and vCloud-based cloud providers. However, the Xpress edition only permits a single connector. ScaleXtreme Xpert enables them to scale their businesses with more advanced capabilities, such as multi-user features, and the ability to concurrently connect to and manage multiple cloud providers.
You had an Early Access version of the product that was successful with early adopters. What did you learn through that process?
Early Access gave us insight into what our customers want from systems management, and from that we were able to build off of the foundation that Early Access laid for the ScaleXtreme product. Customers responded well to the ease of access to multiple, disparate servers from a single system, and were really taken with the ability to run automated tasks across multiple cloud providers’ servers automatically. At the same time, we realized that for smaller businesses and start-ups in particular, that it needed to be highly cost-effective and simple to get going.
What’s the cost for ScaleXtreme Xpert?
For $15 per server per month, ScaleXtreme Xpert provides all of the features any size company would need to effectively manage all of their servers from the cloud with a multi-user systems management tool. Whether a user is registering from the website or upgrading from ScaleXtreme Xpress, the process takes only minutes and is fully deployed to begin using thereafter.
What’s next for ScaleXtreme?
We’re actively working on several new features that we think will delight our customers—many of which they suggested to us in the Early Access phase. We’re also continuing to rapidly add cloud provider connectors to make it as simple as possible to use ScaleXtreme with any cloud server, automatically.
