ScaleXtreme is delivering a cloud-based systems management product, and is hoping to change the way that IT administrators look to manage their Amzon EC2, VMware virtual machines and physical server deployments.  And with a background coming from Bladelogic and VMware, perhaps they are on to something.

The company announced a new cloud provisioning and management functionality, offering customers a hybrid-cloud management product that can both provision and manage the lifecycle of machines through the cloud.  And they are working with Amazon EC2 as well as VMware's vCloud Director and VMware vCloud Powered services.

I wanted to find out more about the company and what they were doing, so I spoke with Nand Mulchandani, CEO of ScaleXtreme.

VMblog:  Tell us a little bit about ScaleXtreme and how it all came together.

Mulchandani:  ScaleXtreme was founded in 2010 by me and Balaji Srinivasa, our CTO, who both have extensive experience in the enterprise software and systems management field. Our goal was to create a product that transforms the way IT admins manage their Amazon EC2, VMware virtual machine and physical server deployments.

One of the things that struck us was that while the underlying virtualization and cloud platforms had fundamentally changed by enabling customers to use and buy compute cycles by the hour, management functionality was stuck in the old enterprise model. Our goal at ScaleXtreme is to fundamentally change how cloud and systems management is brought in line with how customers want to buy and use utility computing.

VMblog:  As cloud computing services are getting more traction with end-user organizations, the majority of organizations are still moving only some of their IT services into the cloud while managing others internally. What problems do enterprises face when managing hybrid cloud environments?

Mulchandani:  I think the biggest problem is not having enough solutions on the market that are "truly" built for hybrid environments. Many vendors have chosen to focus on the public or private cloud and seem to have ignored the needs of a hybrid cloud. Therefore, enterprises need to be careful when trying to select a technology that enables them to receive the benefits cloud computing has to offer.

Most solutions are built to either specifically handle internal cloud deployments or public cloud deployments, while customers do want a "single pane of glass" to manage both environments in a platform, provider and geography independent manner. ScaleXtreme is designed to be that product.

VMblog:  What in your mind is it that sets ScaleXtreme apart from other cloud-based systems management providers?

Mulchandani:  There are many cloud services that can do smaller pieces of the puzzle but they do not qualify as full systems management companies. Unlike other products on the market that only provide the ability to provision machines, ScaleXtreme uniquely enables both provisioning of new machines across multiple clouds, and gives customers the ability to maintain those machines throughout the machines' lifecycle - including configuration management,   inventory management, and task automation. In addition, cloud-hosted machines can be managed exactly as internal virtual or physical machines - all through a "single pane of glass" hosted in the cloud.

Additionally, ScaleXtreme goes beyond simply providing the ability to provision instances from pre-existing Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) or VMware vApp's. This unique approach enables both provisioning of new machines across Amazon EC2, and VMware vCloud Director providers, and gives customers the ability to maintain those machines throughout the machines' lifecycle.

VMblog:  What are the benefits of managing the machine from a single location?  And how will this dual approach allow enterprises to reduce IT costs in the future?

Mulchandani:  By managing the full lifecycle of machines, customers don't have to stitch together multiple products to solve their hybrid-cloud provisioning and system management needs. They are able to manage from a single location in the cloud which is extremely important to saving time and money.

VMblog:  Where do you see future growth in the cloud-based systems management industry?

Mulchandani:  A lot of the growth will come from two main places. First, we believe that a vast majority of system and IT admins don't use any form of automation because the products to date have been too expensive or complicated to deploy and use. Second, we think that customers moving internal workloads to the public cloud (and vice versa, based on SLA's, security, etc.) - all using cloud management products to enable this mobility.

VMblog:  Finally, if you had to choose one thing that is hindering cloud adoption right now, what would it be?

Mulchandani:  I think management is certainly a key one, since the inability to configure, inventory, patch or audit machines in the cloud means that long-lived machines are typically not moved into the public cloud. Security, SLA's, network connectivity and network speed are certainly other concerns - probably to be addressed by the cloud providers or by other vendors.

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Once again, thank you to Nand Mulchandani, CEO of ScaleXtreme for taking time out to speak with me.