fantasy vc - metacloud

Kicking off a series about bets I would've placed if I had the money. This is something I very much wanted to do--very much could not do--when I was at Gartner.

I don't know the numbers on "real" (read: revenue generating) OpenStack adoption, growth, etc. . 

I do know there's real traction. 

Suspicion: it's with very very few vendors. Money is being made but success is concentrated.

There are only two startups in the space I would bet on. One, I have a conflict of interest regarding. The other is Metacloud. Both aren't really OpenStack companies. OpenStack is just a vehicle for the thing they actually do.. In Metacloud's case, what they do is remote ops (as a service!)

Put these things together:

• There is a market for private cloud (whatever that is)
• There is a market for AWSish public cloud
• There is a market for AWSish private cloud (Eucalyptus are still in business, aren't they?)
• There is an existing use case for AWSish private cloud in most enterprises (web, mobile, dev)
• There is a fundamental our-bottom-line-at-stake use case for AWSish private cloud in some subset of enterprises (a few hundred?) today
• There is a general lack of operational skill for AWSish private cloud
• One of the core things public cloud provides is a managed service
• There is a market for on-prem remote-managed AWS (the three letter agency thing is a public example)
• The Metacloud guys are ops guys who understand enterprise, scale, web, mobile, open source, AWSish cloud
• There just aren't a lot of hats (big or small) in this particular ring right now 

That's not to say that they're guaranteed success. Or won't get crushed by an incumbent or other party. Or even scooped up before they become too successful. Just that I would've placed that bet.

Disclosure: They're in my former coverage area. But I believe with some certainty that I'd come to the same conclusion without that background. I have no financial interest in Metacloud. I really like them. Would have a beer with that crew any day.