Aug. 15, 2017 — Today, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Cycle Computing to offer its customers High-Performance Computing (HPC) and other Big Computing capabilities in the cloud. Jason Stowe, CEO of Cycle Computing, announced the acquisition in the following blog post:
When Rachel, Rob, Doug, and I started Cycle twelve years ago on an $8,000 credit card bill, customers needed large up-front investments to access Big Compute. We set out to fix that, to accelerate the pace of innovation by changing the way the world accesses computing. Since then, our products have helped customers fight cancer & other diseases, design faster rockets, build better hard drives, create better solar panels, and manage risk for peoples’ retirements.
We’ve had an amazing experience bootstrapping Cycle Computing without VC funding, building products that will manage 1 Billion core-hours this year, growing at 2.7x every 12 months, with a customer base that spends $50-100 million annually on cloud infrastructure. Today we couldn’t be happier to announce that we’re joining Microsoft to accelerate HPC cloud adoption.
To our existing customers: We couldn’t have done any of this without you, and we’re excited to continue supporting you and the amazing work you do. Together you form an impressive community of innovative users that span Global 2000 Manufacturing, Big 5 Life Insurance, Big 10 Pharma & Biotech, Big 10 Media & Entertainment, Big 10 Financial Services & Hedge Funds, startups, and government agencies. We will continue to make CycleCloud the leading Big Compute and Cloud HPC software, but now even bigger and better than before.
To my fellow Cyclers: You’ve been an integral part of a special team of bright, hard-working people that engineer great products and get things done with integrity. Customers frequently say that they love working with you and the products you build. I couldn’t be prouder. It has been an honor working alongside each of you, and I look forward to the great things we will accomplish together at Microsoft.
To the extended Cycle family, our advisors, supporters, vendors, ISVs, partners: As a team, we had the rare opportunity to invent and lead a product category, Cloud HPC, drive customer adoption, push the boundaries of what can be done, and execute our vision of changing the world for the better. Thank you all for helping Cyclers push things forward; your collaboration means so much to us.
Now, we see amazing opportunities in joining forces with Microsoft. Its global cloud footprint and unique hybrid offering is built with enterprises in mind, and its Big Compute/HPC team has already delivered pivotal technologies such as InfiniBand and next generation GPUs. The Cycle team can’t wait to combine CycleCloud’s technology for managing Linux and Windows compute & data workloads, with Microsoft Azure’s Big Compute infrastructure roadmap and global market reach.
In short, we’re psyched to be joining the Azure team precisely because they share our vision of bringing Big Compute to the world: to solve our customers’, and frequently humanity’s most challenging problems through the use of cloud HPC.
Source: Jason Stowe, Cycle Computing