Cloud News: Nimsoft, Fujitsu, Citrix, CloudPassage

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines from the cloud computing sector:

Nimsoft added to Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform. Fujitsu and Nimsoft announced a global partnership under which Fujitsu has incorporated Nimsoft IT management-as-a-service monitoring and service desk solutions into its Fujitsu Global Cloud Portfolio. “The Nimsoft feature set and delivery model are extremely attractive to both enterprise customers and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) looking to control costs, reduce complexity and adaptively meet constantly changing management requirements,” said Mark Frost, General Manager, Nimsoft Solutions Group. “The adoption of our technology by a global powerhouse like Fujitsu is a very strong confirmation of our market leadership.” Complimenting its Software as a Service catalog, Nimsoft's Monitor and Service Desk will be delivered from the Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform (FGCP). FGCP delivers Infrastructure-as-a-Service in Japan, Australia, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Singapore. “IT Management as a Service gives organizations more flexible alternatives to traditional IT management software,” said Dennis Callaghan, senior enterprise software analyst at 451 Research. “This is important for two reasons. As workloads move into the cloud, the IT management tools can move with them. IT Management as a Service also insulates organizations from additional upgrade and maintenance headaches.”

Citrix acquires Podio. Citrix announced it has completed the acquisition of privately held Podio, which offers an online collaborative work platform. As a cloud service, Podio unifies content, traditional business applications, and new mobile apps, as well as the real-time and asynchronous communications. Podio will join the GoTo cloud services portfolio. Citrix will reveal more of its plans for Podio and its collaboration strategy at Citrix Synergy San Francisco, May 9–11, 2012. “From the start, Podio has been focused on creating an experience that would be more than an online place to talk about work, but a platform customers trust to actually help them work as teams to get work done – 24/7. The extraordinary adoption we saw in just one year validates the pent up demand for better ways for teams to collaborate,” said Tommy Ahlers, CEO of Podio. “With a shared vision and culture that is synergistic, Citrix can help us scale to meet demand at a speed that would not be possible otherwise.”

CloudPassage secures $14 million. Cloud server security provider CloudPassage announced it has completed a $14 million financing round, bringing the company's total funding to $21M. The round was led by Tenaya Capital, with participation from existing investors Benchmark Capital and Musea Ventures. The company will use the financing to advance Halo, its cloud server security platform, and extend its functionality with innovations previously in stealth development. "With the cloud quickly gaining traction, we were the first to provide a security platform that allows companies to safely leverage this new computing model. We’ll be extending our leadership in the IaaS security space with innovations that will change how companies look at server security altogether," said Carson Sweet, co-founder and CEO of CloudPassage.