Earlier this week, Microsoft announced its acquisition of US based cloud computing and big data solutions firm Cycle Computing for an undisclosed amount. Industry experts claim the move gives Microsoft a considerable advantage over its rivals in the public cloud market as it will now own Cycle Computing’s state-of-the-art data workload orchestration software, which is a key management platform deployed by most major cloud service providers.
Although Cycle Computing may not be one of the better-known industry players, it has honed its expertise in supplying high-profile clients from the financial, manufacturing, retail and tech industries with access to cutting edge computing capabilities via the cloud. Microsoft is positioning the deal as a way for it to enable its Azure customers to use high-performance computing and other ‘big computing’ capabilities in the public cloud.
While announcing the acquisition, VP for Microsoft Azure, Jason Zander, explained how his company would benefit from the move:
We’ve already seen explosive growth on Azure in the areas of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and deep learning. As customers continue to look for faster, more efficient ways to run their workloads, Cycle Computing’s depth and expertise around massively scalable applications make them a great fit to join our Microsoft team. Their technology will further enhance our support of Linux HPC workloads and make it easier to extend on-premise workloads to the cloud.
Meanwhile, CEO of Cycle Computing, Jason Stowe, stated in a blog post following the acquisition:
We see amazing opportunities in joining forces with Microsoft. Its global cloud footprint and unique hybrid offering is built with enterprises in mind, and its Big Compute/HPC team has already delivered pivotal technologies such as InfiniBand and next generation GPUs. The Cycle team can’t wait to combine CycleCloud’s technology for managing Linux and Windows compute & data workloads, with Microsoft Azure’s Big Compute infrastructure roadmap and global market reach.
With Cycle Computing’s CycleCloud software currently being implemented by both Amazon’s AWS and Google Cloud, Microsoft has confirmed that it will continue to support customers using rival cloud platforms for now, but that future versions will be ‘Azure focused’.