New Option for Enterprise to Cloud

PRESS RELEASE

Sunnyvale, CA, October 22, 2014 – Bracket Computing, Inc., today unveiled the Bracket Computing Cell, the world’s first Cloud Virtualization System, bringing to market the enterprise-grade security, performance, reliability and control that large enterprises require to run significant workloads on the public cloud.

The Computing Cell is an enterprise infrastructure service that encapsulates every aspect of a customer’s IT infrastructure — security, storage, compute and networking — in a fully encrypted software system that spans multiple hyperscale clouds. Bracket’s software-based infrastructure allows customers to dynamically adjust service levels that are backed by strong Service-Level Agreements (SLAs), including several industry firsts. With their applications and data safely isolated in their Computing Cell, customers can take full advantage of the scale, elasticity and efficiency of the public cloud, but with the security, performance and control of a private data center.

Bracket’s team of systems and security experts spent nearly three years developing the Computing Cell. To fund that effort, the company raised more than $85M from industry heavyweights. The size of the funding speaks to the size of the opportunity: The market for cloud-based enterprise services is estimated at nearly $100B and growing. Given the potential of the Computing Cell, Bracket worked closely with Fortune 500 companies to develop its technology.

“In today’s dynamic business environment, companies such as Blackstone require IT infrastructure that responds easily to changing business requirements,” said Josh Schertzer, Senior Vice President and Head of Infrastructure within Blackstone’s technology group. “We think that companies will want to leverage the flexibility of the public cloud in addition to their private cloud systems, and we worked with Bracket on technology that provides the security and controls that companies will require to do just that. We feel this dynamic hybrid public/private architecture will help companies facilitate movement of their systems into the public cloud.”

A New Architecture for Enterprise Computing
Cloud Virtualization represents a fundamentally new architecture for enterprise computing that allows applications, data and the computing infrastructure that controls them to all reside in a single software system. “Imagine if you could put an enterprise’s existing data center — applications, data and associated computing infrastructure — in a Computing Cell and move them out almost magically across multiple public clouds,” said Tom Gillis, Bracket CEO and co-founder. “The workload doesn’t know whether it’s running on premises or on a public cloud. It just works.”

“Creating photo-real visual effects is a very complex process that requires massive data management and compute power — and the flexibility to meet Hollywood’s tight deadlines,” said David Altenau, CEO of FuseFX, a leading visual effects firm.  “Our artists need to focus on creative issues and not be burdened by technology constraints. Bracket worked closely with us to create a seamless, ultra-secure cloud based infrastructure that’s accessible by our teams in NYC, Vancouver and LA, and looks just like a natural extension of our in-house systems. Bracket’s implementation gives us the almost limitless potential to realize the visual effects our clients expect.”

The Computing Cell: The Soul of a New Machine
Inside the Computing Cell is Bracket’s patented virtualization technology, which creates a lightweight virtualization layer that allows the Computing Cell to span multiple public clouds. This layer is also where the necessary enterprise security, storage, compute and networking controls reside.

During development the company found that the problems of enterprise computing could not be attacked piecemeal. Consequently Bracket has built security, storage and virtualization as a single architecture, which enables Bracket to offer service levels no one else matches. This systems approach also allows third-party components to work seamlessly alongside Bracket’s.
Within this innovative architecture, Bracket has developed a unique storage system that yields very high performance, data integrity and availability, integrated with a state-of-the-art multi-key encryption system. All of the components are transparent and tightly integrated in the virtualization layer so that everything works in sync.

We trace our technical roots from the greatest systems technology companies in the world,” said Jason Lango, CTO and co-founder of Bracket Computing. “That’s why we have been able to design and deliver such complex technology — enterprise security, storage, compute and networking — together in an architecture optimized for hyperscale clouds. Our unique systems approach, using the effectively infinite resources of the public cloud, will define the future of enterprise computing.>

Managed by Directive: A New World of Data Center Automation
Enterprise customers have always struggled to build an IT infrastructure that is responsive enough to move at the speed of business. Bracket’s Computing Cell changes that equation. By combining the hyperscale of the public cloud with highly predictable, reliable and secure software infrastructure, the Computing Cell finally gives IT the means to respond — in near real-time — to ever-changing business conditions. This advance is made possible by the Computing Cell’s unique ability to be Managed by Directive™, even under a running workload.
The results are dramatic. Not only is the operation of an entire data center reduced to the movement of a few simple controls, but its responsiveness is the stuff of a CIO’s dreams — functions such as compute, I/O and storage flex up or down in seconds, and their performance is backed by unique Service-Level Agreements (SLAs). 

It Looks Just Like Another Data Center
The unique architecture of the Bracket Computing Cell consistently provides best-of-breed software infrastructure, including encryption, authentication, network segmentation, data integrity and data management across multiple public clouds. It even enables the migration of existing enterprise controls and allows customers to extend their existing policies; and as a result Bracket’s Computing Cell simply appears as a more flexible and robust extension of the customer’s private cloud infrastructure. In this way, Bracket is offering a radically different hybrid cloud computing model in which workloads can flex up or down, span multiple public clouds, be moved at any time and be managed with one set of controls.

Backed by Industry Giants
Building a system of this scale and complexity is an ambitious undertaking that requires the backing of large customers and investors alike. Bracket has had the fortune to attract both. The company has raised more than $85M from Andreessen Horowitz, Norwest Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, ARTIS Ventures, Allegis Capital, GE and Qualcomm.  
 “Our venture investments in software are crucial to driving increased industry innovation,” said Brett May, Head of Venture Capital and Business Development at GE Software. “Bracket has a unique approach to Cloud Virtualization that has the potential to provide enhanced security and performance in the future.”

The Bracket Computing Cell is safely and efficiently processing data for some of the world’s largest companies and is available now. Visit www.brkt.com for more information.

About Bracket Computing
Bracket Computing created the world’s first Cloud Virtualization System with the development of its Computing Cell in 2011, with the ultimate goal of delivering enterprise computing that is driven by business needs, not hardware limitations. Today Computing Cells harness the public cloud for the enterprise, combining their scale, elasticity and efficiency with the security, performance and control of a dedicated hardware data center. Bracket Computing is a private company whose investors include venture firms Andreessen Horowitz, Norwest Venture Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, ARTIS Ventures and Allegis Capital, and strategic corporate investors GE and Qualcomm. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit www.brkt.com.