6fusion, a provider of utility-metered public, private and hybrid cloud infrastructure management software and services, today announced it has completed a $7 million round of funding led by Vienna, Virginia based Grotech Ventures. Intersouth Partners, which led the company's first institutional investment in August 2010, also participated in the round.

6fusion plans to use the proceeds to accelerate the adoption of its key technologies around the world following the substantial growth it has experienced since moving the company to Raleigh, North Carolina in August of 2010. The company has been actively hiring sales and development resources to support its expansion, most recently adding former VMware executive Richard Martin as Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Business Development, and Mark Riedeman as Director of Software Development.

“VARs and managed service providers need to respond quickly to the increasing demand for cloud services from their customers,” said John Abbott, chief analyst at The 451 Group. “6fusion’s granular metering, consumption and billing tools, coupled with federated access to third party cloud providers worldwide, gives channel partners an easier onramp to the cloud for meeting that demand, without the need to invest heavily in their own infrastructure.”

“We are delighted to partner with an experienced and highly successful firm such as Grotech Ventures while continuing to expand our relationship with Intersouth Partners,” said John Cowan co-founder and CEO of 6fusion. “Our business ecosystem is growing at a remarkable pace and investor confidence is further recognition that 6fusion is building a winning business,” he added.

"6fusion has spent the last year building its team and expanding its technology," said Mitch Mumma of Intersouth Partners, who serves on the 6fusion Board of Directors. "This infusion of capital will help catapult the company to the next level of growth and success."

6fusion’s unique metering algorithm, the Workload Allocation Cube (WAC), standardizes the measurement of storage and compute, which allows its customers and partners to quantify supply and demand for resources. Its UC6 Cloud Management Platform federates private data center and third party cloud operators, providing a single console to allow IT organizations of all types to meter, manage and optimize hybrid cloud infrastructures.

Lawson DeVries of Grotech Ventures will join the Company’s Board of Directors. “There are a lot of startups currently focused on cloud computing, but 6fusion’s ability to federate data center operators and drive value across the IT channel sets it apart,” DeVries summarized.