ScaleXtreme raises $11M from Ignition and Accel

Cloud-based systems management company ScaleXtreme (it’s Xtreme!!) on Tuesday announced its $11 million Series B round of funding led by Ignition Partners, with help from existing investor Accel Partners. The round brings ScaleXtreme’s total raised to date to $13 million.

Founded in 2010, the Palo Alto-based company bills itself as the “first cloud-based systems management company, allowing IT admins to manage their Amazon EC2, VMware virtual machine and physical server deployments all from the cloud, which is what drew Frank Artale, managing director of Ignition, to the company.

“What drew me to the company from the first day is that the solution is really only possible using the cloud as deployment,” said Artale. “That is, IT Pros managing any amount of servers can start managing a few or many right away without needing to install a management software product and worry about that.”

Artale explained that ScaleXtreme’s solution makes server management as simple as point, click, and manage. For example, the Explore feature allows IT admins to see every server under his/her management in one spot without having to log into multiple machines through a command shell. Additionally, the Monitor feature allows IT professionals to get a quick status overview of all of the servers under management, whether they are on-site or in the cloud, instead of having to deploy and configure software. And the Manage feature allows users to manage repetitive tasks automatically across multiple systems.

“This is true cloud computing,” said Artale, who will be joining the company’s board of directors.

“Frank understands the systems management space, understands virtualization, and has a great network,” said ScaleXtreme CEO Nand Mulchandani.  “Most of the team at Ignition are ex-Microsoft and they understand the management space as well.  Many have built or managed those groups and grew them into larger businesses.  Ignition has great relationships with Microsoft and Amazon, two heavyweights in the cloud space.  The team is very technical and supportive of ScaleXtreme.”

The company plans to use the new funds to ramp up product development and expand marketing and sales efforts.