Episode

TWiCC April 14: Parand Darugar and Vineet Jain

This Week in Cloud Computing airs LIVE every Wednesday at 3pm PST / 6pm EST with Hosts Amanda Coolong and Mark Jeffrey.

Episode #9 featuring Parand Darugar, Founder and CEO of Xpenser (our App of the Week)  and Vineet Jain, CEO of Egnyte will air this coming Wednesday, April 14th at 3pm PST / 6pm EST. Please join us!

**INTRODUCTION**

  • 00:00 – 01:59 Hello and welcome to Episode 9 of This Week in Cloud Computing, where it’s okay to have your head in the clouds. We have a packed show for you today, so let’s get started!
  • Quick Updates

    • Did anyone catch This Week in Venture Capital right before our show? It’s new to our lineup at ThisWeekIn.com, so make sure to tune in!
    • Event updates: (can we get them on ThisWeekIn.com in time for the show so we can highlight the site?)


      • Under the Radar’s “Commercializing the Cloud” Conference is THIS Friday, April 16 at the Microsoft Campus in Mountainview, CA
        • Schedule was just announced. John Quinn, VP of Engineering at Digg will do the morning keynote
        • Also have half-day passes for $345
        • To register: (post on lower third)
      • AlwaysOn’s OnDemand 2010 Conference is April 19-21 at HP’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA
        • Where the top Internet companies disrupting the enterprise square off with the incumbent players pioneering cloud computing and SaaS.
        • The OnDemand Top 100 Private Companies have just been announced.
          • See the full list here (post on lower third)
      • The Cloud Computing Expo is also taking place April 19-21 at the Javits Convention Center in NYC
        • The show is offering a FREE “TwitterVIP” pass to anyone who retweets the following: “Register for #CloudExpo New York for FREE at @CloudExpo! http://bit.ly/deupdq”


  • 02:00 – 02:59 Welcome guests
    • Vineet Jain, CEO, Egnyte (file server storage in the cloud for SMBs) On Twitter: @egnyte @vineetkjain / www.egnyte.com
    • Parand (Tony) Darugar, founder & CEO, Xpenser (web app to track your expenses as they happen) On Twitter: @xpenser


  • Thank Sponsors: TWICC is brought to you by: Virtacore, Storm on Demand, NetDNA (@virtacore @StormOnDemand @NetDNACDN)


  • How you can participate: ThisWeekIn.com – chat room / @TWICloudComp / #TWiCC #cloud / Fan us on Facebook
  • ALSO!  We are giving away an IPAD!!!  And FIVE copies of Tony Hsieh’s book.  Tweet thanks to our sponsors and we will choose one at random over the next two week for the iPad and 5 this week for the books.

But FIRST… the NEWS!!!


03:00 –

**NEWS** (for general discussion among the group)

STORY 1: At Atmosphere, Google’s inaugural cloud computing event targeting enterprise, CEO Eric Schmidt admitted Google’s goal for its new Docs and the broader Google Apps cloud collaboration suite is to get 80% of the market.
Regarding Google’s strategy, Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT told InternetNews.com, “It’s sort of a Martha Stewart approach to IT. She has her branded products but she’s really about selling a lifestyle. Google’s selling the cloud as a lifestyle and while they have their applications, they’re also ready to have partners supply a lot of the other pieces.”
Question: Steve Ballmer already said Microsoft’s  ’all in’ with the cloud, and now Google is matching their bet. Who is best suited to win?


STORY 2: Yesterday at an Amazon Web Services event in San Francisco an Information Architect stated, “If you don’t embrace cloud computing, somebody else in your company will. The result will be IT outside of IT.”

Question: Are you seeing this? With the rise in cloud computing, how much does IT matter? How can it stay involved in the process?

STORY 3: Rumors are flying that Oracle is going to acquire Citrix. (Heck, they already bought Sun).


Question: How would a Citrix acquisition help Oracle’s cloud strategy? More importantly, what role are acquisitions currently playing in cloud computing?

STORY 4: James Staten, principal analyst in Forrester Research’s Infrastructure & Operations practice, recently told Data Center Dialog that a hybrid cloud environment is “…a reality for some firms today, but not in the way that many people think. A hybrid between your internal data center and a public cloud isn’t very realistic due to latency, cost, and security. A hybrid between your internal cloud and a public cloud isn’t realistic either. (See the above answers for why.) What is realistic is a hybrid between dedicated hosting and cloud hosting within the same hosting provider.”

Question: Do you agree with Staten’s barriers of latency, cost and security? Why/why not?

**SPONSOR BREAK**

The weather in LA’s been a bit…stormy this week…. Do you hear something?
<Cue music, cut to Mark’s computer screen>
STORM ON DEMAND

1. An Infrastructure As A Service, Cloud Computing Platform that is powerful enough to replace dedicated servers.
2. A proprietary Cloud platform that was designed by Liquid Web, one of the largest Web Hosting providers with over 12 years experience.
3. Is easier to use and less expensive than Amazon EC2.
4. Features include: server setup in minutes, easy scaling, back up and restoration capabilities and pay-as-you-go utility style billing.
5. Options include: cPanel, Fantastico, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fully Managed Servers, Private Networking and much more.


25:00 – **INTERVIEW**

<Post on lower third>

Vineet Jain, CEO at Egnyte
www.egnyte.com
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/vineetkjain
Twitter: @vineetkjain
  • Born and raised in India
  • Prior to Egnyte, you founded Valdero, a supply chain software provider. Also served as the co’s VP of Engineering
  • Before this, served as VP of Engineering at MarketFusion, Web based solutions for building and managing global sourcing infrastructure
  • Also worked as a consultant for BearingPoint and KPMG Consulting


1) Egnyte offers a hybrid file server for small businesses to store & corporate data, and backup personal computers. It offers all the bells and whistles of an enterprise class file storage system, but at a fraction of the cost.
Question: How much does file server hardware & the related IT management typically cost a small business every year? How are you eliminating this pain?
2) Why did you choose to target SMBs? What trends did you see that made this market segment appealing?
3) The SMB market seems pretty crowded. Who do you see as your competition?

4) There are some impressive names backing Egnyte, namely Maples Investments who provided early funding for Digg & Twitter; and Polaris Venture Partners, who collectively funded two companies that IPO’d in 2009.

Question: You’re a successful entrepreneur – reached over $11 million in sales then sold Valdero. Are you aiming for the same with Egnyte?
5) Your momentum is impressive. Last year you experienced 900% customer count growth and are currently acquiring customers at a rate of 15-17% month over month.
Question: What’s the secret to your success? What pointers do you have for other startup founders?

About Egnyte

Egnyte delivers infrastructure on-demand services to small businesses looking to outsource their IT infrastructure. Egnyte’s customers come from a wide variety of industries and include consultants, financial services firms, marketing firms, web design firms, accountants, real estate and mortgage firms, start-ups, medical & pharmaceutical companies and numerous non- profit firms. Egnyte supports customers today across the US, Canada, Europe and Asia. The company is privately funded by venture capitalists based in Silicon Valley.

**SPONSOR BREAK**

Your cloud hosting provider letting you down?  Take a look at managed private cloud solutions from Virtacore.


A managed private cloud solution can easily replace your current IT infrastructure and eliminate IT pains

  • Avoid the cost and hassle of buying and maintain IT equipment and software
  • Deliver 100 % uptime to end-users
  • Configure and deploy computing resources in just minutes

With Virtacore, your private cloud is hosted in an advanced and secure data center, uses ONLY best-in-class hardware and software, and gives you access to access to scalable bandwidth.

Virtacore’s team of experts monitor and maintain your private cloud 24x7x365 freeing your internal staff to concentrate on supporting only your applications…. and projects that can help grow your company.

45:00 – **APP of the WEEK** (Xpenser overview & demo)


Parand (Tony) Darugar, founder and CEO

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/parand

  • Xpenser started as a personal tool to track expenses because you hated doing them
  • Before founding Xpenser, you spent 4 years at Yahoo as one of the core architects of the Panama project managing the platform groups
  • Also the co-founder and chief architect of Blue Titan Software, a venture-backed Web services infrastructure company that sold to SOA software


Tax day is upon us in 48 hours. This is the time of year where people feel the ultimate ‘coulda shoulda woulda’ of expense management

<Cut to screen for product demo>

About Xpenser

  • A mobile expense management solution: manage time, expenses, and receipts via email, SMS, voice (call and say your expense), Twitter, iPhone, IM (Yahoo, MSN, AIM, Google Talk), or the Web.
  • Track your expenses as they happen, in real time

**SPONSOR BREAK**
Did you just hear a clap of thunder? Is it raining in LA again? <cue music>


STORM ON DEMAND

1. An Infrastructure As A Service, Cloud Computing Platform that is powerful enough to replace dedicated servers.
2. A proprietary Cloud platform that was designed by Liquid Web, one of the largest Web Hosting providers with over 12 years experience.
3. Is easier to use and less expensive than Amazon EC2.
4. Features include: server setup in minutes, easy scaling, back up and restoration capabilities and pay-as-you-go utility style billing.
5. Options include: cPanel, Fantastico, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fully Managed Servers, Private Networking and much more.

55:00 – **CLOSE**
  • Guest closing remarks, thanks for joining, stay in touch


  • Acknowledge sponsors: Virtacore, Storm on Demand, NetDNA

    • Thanks for supporting independent new media
    • Ask viewers to Tweet thx to sponsors – saw you on TWICC! (@virtacore @StormOnDemand @NetDNACDN)
    • If you need cloud computing services, check them out


  • Ideas for the show? pitch@thisweekin.com

    • We want to talk to high scale people, whoever runs the infrastructure team
    • CEOs, product managers
    • Want to share discount codes for your conference/event?


  • Next week, same time, same place  SAME CLOUD TIME, SAME CLOUD CHANNEL