Mirantis Mirantis

The main office "Mirantis" is in Mountain View, the State of California, five additional offices are located in Russia, Ukraine and Poland

Mirantis provides the technological solutions, complete sets, training and support necessary for the companies for creation of clouds based on OpenStack technologies commercially.

The company is financed from venture fund, including from investments of Intel Capital, West Summit Capital,Ericsson and SAP Ventures.

Command

As of the end of 2014 in the company about 500 engineers work. The development team Mirantis is geographically distributed and includes engineers who do a product of the company and who provide services.

Development centers of the company are in Moscow, Saratov, Kharkiv, Lviv, Poznan and also in California. In addition, there are certain developers in the different European countries.

The company performs close cooperation with universities of Saratov (Saratov State University, the Saratov state technical university) and Kharkiv (The Kharkiv national university of radio electronics, the National space university (HAI), the National technical university (HPI)).

A third of employees of Mirantis finished or continue training in a postgraduate study, actively participating in scientific activity. In the company five Candidates of Physics and Mathematics work (from them two associate professors of Technologies of programming of SGU), protection of four more master's theses is planned in the nearest future. Engineers of Mirantis not only participate in development of world-class IT products, using advanced technologies, but also work on development of examination in the field of cloud computing, being engaged in teaching activity and imparting students the accumulated practical knowledge and experience. Rates "Technologies of Cloud Computing", "Ensuring Quality of Software", "Modern Technologies of Testing in Distributed and Klaud-systems", "Programming in the Python Language", "Deployment engineering", "Java programming", etc. were for this purpose developed. These rates are offered students both within curricula of specialties, and in the form of open seminars.

Directions of development

Development of OpenStack is conducted by forces of the community of engineers worldwide provided by more than 200 companies. As of 2014 on volumes of a contribution to development Mirantis is the third participant of this community after HP and Red Hat.

"OpenStack technologies are only four years, but growth of its popularity is unprecedented in the history of the open code. According to the statistics Stackalyticks, engineers Mirantis created 14% of the OpenStack code. - the cofounder and the chairman of the board of directors Mirantis Alexander Friedland speaks, - it is pleasant to Me to realize that for the first time the Russian and Ukrainian developers in the field of Open Source are coauthors of the largest international innovation project developing as equals with the international technology giants".

Cofounder and chairman of the board of directors Mirantis Alexander Friedland

Mirantis, in particular, conducts development in the field of basic infrastructure projects, work-related OpenStack with computing, network resources and solutions for data storage. In this direction work on reliability augmentation of the platform and development of its functionality is conducted.

The company conducts the second direction of development in the field of ensuring work of service for management of lifecycle of the applications existing in a cloud and automation of distribution for applications of computing resources, network capacity and the place in storage. In this direction the company developed the Sahara tool for start and management of software for storage and processing of data bulks (Hadoop) on clouds under control of OpenStack which became a part of OpenStack. Also the company keeps the Murano project which should become also a part of OpenStack which will allow to be engaged in convenient implementation of applications in OpenStack ecosystem.

Also the company offers convenient instruments of interaction with OpenStack technology, for example, within the Rally project allowing to create environments for verification, to test performance and also OpenStack benchmarking. It also should become a part of OpenStack. One more project – Manilla connected with providing the file system as service.

Alexander Friedland told TAdviser that the company sets as the purpose that OpenStack outstripped in terms of the scope of uses other platforms for what solves several problems. First, this training of the engineers, the main part of whom is represented by Russian-speaking and Ukranian-speaking specialists, how effectively to work in global community and to be modern developer Open Source. The second – development of own distribution kit "from a box", work on its reliability, flexibility and scalability. The third – the direction of service: how to integrate OS with other systems, with solutions of partners.

Clients and partners

The sales director Mirantis Valery Bezrukov reported to TAdviser that as of March, 2015 the company in the country already had first projects. Part of them is in an implementation stage, a part – in a stage of pre-sale activity. He preferred not to read names of the first customers, but specified in a conversation with TAdviser that they are generally provided by the companies of banking sector, the TV set and service providers.

Also as of March, 2015 at Mirantis in Russia five active partner integrators, and according to plans of their company should become about 10 companies. Valery Bezrukov noted that Mirantis does not pursue the number of partners: for it it is more important to have let their small number, but that it were the partners really ready to invest in development of the OpenStack direction in themselves in the company.

History "Mirantis"

2016

Mirantis opened representation in Japan

Mirantis together with the Japanese AP Communications Co., Ltd. created Mirantis Japan, Inc. The headquarters of the company is going to be placed in Tokyo. Headed new business of Itsuo ISO who held the leading posts in regional representative offices of Cisco, Verizon, Dell and other large IT companies before. It is about creation of a full-fledged, independent business unit.

Telecommunication companies and segment of corporate IT will become Mirantis priority in Japan. Let's remind that the main development centers Mirantis are located in Russia: in Saratov and in Moscow. Offices of the company are in many countries of the world: in France, Poland, Germany, the USA, Holland. Mastering the Asian markets, Mirantis invested in creation of the independent company in Japan and joint venture (UMCloud) in China.

2015

Mirantis storms the Russian market

In 2015 Mirantis enhanced the activity in the Russian market, told in the company in April. According to the CEO Mirantis Herman Narkaysis, the global plan for revenue Mirantis the current year makes about $60 million, and directly in Russia the company expects to sign contracts (booked revenue) for the amount about $5 million. Here also contracts under which payment is supposed in 2016 belong, he specified.

Speaking about the reasons why the company decided to strengthen focus to Russia right now, representatives Mirantis give several factors. One of them – degree of readiness of the market for OpenStack use. On mentality and readiness to accept some approaches in IT Russia approximately for 2-3 years – lags behind the western markets, the sales director Mirantis Valery Bezrukov believes, adding that it concerns also OpenStack. However if earlier Russian market belonged to this product without enthusiasm, then now the increasing number of the companies begins to understand advantages of its use, he says.

"OpenStack in Russia are engaged many vendors, however we believe that anybody has no such examination, as at us. And we, perhaps, only who sells Open Source in pure form: we have no closed commercial components. It is a part of our strategy", - Bezrukov added.

Herman Narkaysis, CEO Mirantis

Favorable factor for business development on OpenStack in Russia is and the political and economic situation which developed in the country forcing the companies to look for solutions on lower cost and with a smaller binding to the western vendors believe in Mirantis.

"Concerning import substitution recently best of all me our Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov told: that OpenStack is the most correct example of the product Open Source which is import-substituting in relation to proprietary products of large corporations", Herman Narkaysis in a conversation with TAdviser noted.

Growth of projects in Russia should be promoted also by global decrease in average cost of contracts on projects for OpenStack. If any time ago it could average about $5 million, then now the cost of the contract begins approximately from $50 thousand, speak in Mirantis. The company added that the Russian price list at it ruble and the prices for local customers were frozen in rubles at not the highest rate.

"If to speak about our closest competitors –VMware,Red Hat,HP and other suppliers of the OpenStack distribution kits, at the prices we are very competitive", - Bezrukov says.

Investments of $100 million including from Intel

On August 24, 2015 it became known of involvement of Mirantis of investments. Intel which continues to give support free program providing invested in large developer OpenStack, The Wall Street Journal tells.

The volume of a round of financing of Mirantis was $100 million. A part of this money provided Intel. Besides, Goldman Sachs, August Capital, Insight Venture Partners, Ericsson, Sapphire Ventures and WestSummit Capital were among investors. Shares of investments are not specified.

Mirantis receives $100 million investments the second time for the last 10 months. Did not participate in the first of these investment transactions of Intel, but it was among investors in 2013 when the developer of cloud infrastructure  open source attracted $75 million. The general amount of money, the attracted Mirantis by August 24, 2015, is estimated at $220 million. How much investors estimate the company, is not reported.

Mirantis carried out a round of financing of $100 million in size

The financial support should help Mirantis to increase attractiveness of the products among corporate users and to improve technology developments.

According to the head of server division of Intel Dayany Bryant (Diane Bryant), Mirantis it is capable to finish OpenStack to minimize interruptions in work of clouds. If developers are able to eliminate technical defects of the cloud systems, more and more companies will want to pass to them, is sure Bryant.

"There are several specialized things which we want that Mirantis was engaged" — the vice president of Intel Johnathan Donaldson (Jonathan Donaldson) who is responsible in the company for development of projects in the field of program infrastructures said.^[1]

Within cooperation with Intel as the president and the cofounder of Mirantis Alex Freedland told, the company will get access to resources of the American IT giant, including to its laboratories and the equipment. At the expense of these additional resources and investments Mirantis will be able to offer large customers an opportunity of deployment of OpenStack on all their infrastructure, Freedland said, having added that achievement of such level of development of VMware and Red Hat required much more time — about 10 years.^[2]

2014

Clients and partners

As of the end of 2014 at Mirantis there are more than 135 clients who are generally concentrated in the USA (about a half of turnover Mirantis is the share of it) and Europe (a quarter of turnover) worldwide. Also the company has clients in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Among the biggest customers – Ericsson,AT&T,Orange,Vodafone,Symantec,Cisco,EMC,NetApp,PayPal, Wells Fargo Bank,Huawei,NTT Docomo, Pacnet, Tata Communications, etc.

"Implementation of OpenStack gains steam worldwide that is dictated by the need for low-cost scalable cloud infrastructure. According to 451 Research, market size by 2018 will reach 3.3 billion dollars", –Alex Crisses, the managing director of one of investors Mirantis -Insight Venture Partners says. – "The Mirantis company provides solutions based on OpenStack, providing the cloud computing which is not depending on vendors for a short time and with the minimum costs in comparison with traditional suppliers of IT. The number of the clients attracted with the company phenomenally".

Alexander Friedland told TAdviser that in Russia as of the end of 2014 the company has no clients yet, but it actively works with local service providers, telecom operators and other companies to which OpenStack is interesting. He also noted that at the company in Russia several pilot projects are planned. With what companies, in Mirantis do not open yet. The course towards import substitution accepted by the state in 2013-2014 should promote increase in users of OpenStack and appearance of clients in the company and in Russia, Alexander Friedland expects.

Among the Russian partners Mirantis – large integrators, such as Lanit,I-Teco,Croc,IBS Platformix,Servionica.

The investment attraction in $100 million

In November, 2014 Mirantis announced attraction of $ dollar 100 million investments of series "B" from Insight Venture Partners. The company said that at that time it became the largest financing of projects on software development open source and also one of the most significant rounds of attraction of financial resources in B2B software segment.

Also took part in a round August Capital fund and the existing investors of the company: Intel Capital, WestSummit Capital, Ericsson and Sapphie Ventures (earlier - SAP Ventures). According to the results of Alex Krisses, the managing director of Insight Venture Partners, will be a part of Board of Directors Mirantis.

Mirantis is going to use the raised funds as investment into engineering developments. The company will concentrate efforts in the field of software development based on OpenStack, including the MirantisHYPERLINK distribution kit, available to downloading, declared in the company. Financing will also be directed to acceleration of the international promotion of the company on the markets of Europe, Russia and Pacific Rim and also on increase in a pool of technical support engineers and expansion of its open partner ecosystem.

2012: The investment attraction - $20 million

Mirantis lifted investments of series "A" in the amount of $20 million in 2012 in two stages: the first was closed in December, 2012, and the second – in June, 2013. As the leading investor in this series Intel Capital and also a number of large corporate players –Dell, Ericsson, SAP, Red Hat, West Summit Capital fund acted.

In Mirantis at that time said that are going to aim the received funds mainly at the development of the engineering divisions in the territory of Russia and Ukraine: it is going to double staff of developers from 200 to 400 employees. Thanks to it Mirantis expected to enter in 2014 into the three of the most significant kontributor of the source code of a core OpenStack.

"The extended command will develop a core of OpenStack and to develop new functionality of the platform that will allow to make sharp jump in OpenStack development, its convenience to corporate implementations in the near future. On the basis of these developments other large companies will be able to create the cloud solutions that will accelerate distribution of the platform worldwide. At the same time Mirantis will support a course towards ensuring the implementation of the OpenStack platform which is not depending on vendors without imposing of specific solutions", - noted in Mirantis.

Alexander Friedland with Kamil Isaev, the CEO on research and development of Intel in Russia

2009: A rate on cloud computing

Alexander Friedland told TAdviser that to crisis of 2009 the company had the resource including about 150 engineers and instead of further "resale" of specialists began to look for a new perspective technology niche where it would be possible to apply effectively the personnel resource which was available for it.

As such direction cloud computing was selected. Mirantis began to involve the specialists in implementation of different cloud projects and to establish profile partnership with other companies. Among clients for whom Mirantis performed works on similar projects – PayPal and Macy's companies in the West.

"Having worked thus about two years, we, first, understood the most cloud technology, and secondly, understood that the cloud is in fact even not technology, but a different way of vision of the world, other business case of work and that it is the same revolution in computing as the invention of the PC at the time of mainframes. We understood that eventually it will be large market", - Friedland says.

Having drawn such analogy, the company decided that there has to be an operating system which will manage a cloud, and decided to concentrate on it. In Mirantis were also defined that OS at the same time should be with the open code: "if before Open Source just was an alternative to expensive vendor solutions, then now it is the engine of innovations", Friedland says. With respect thereto Mirantis also selected OpenStack as the platform on which it should concentrate. Is engaged in developments in this Mirantis direction since 2011.

2000: Creation of the company

Mirantis conducts the activity since 2000.

"We were a part of RSI Group company which in 1999 was purchased by the English London Bridge Software. During purchase the group of the Russian developers was selected in separate division which was incorporated in Mirantis company in 2000", - the cofounder and the chairman of the board of directors Mirantis Alexander Friedland told TAdviser.

As a part of RSI Group the group of the Russian developers created the software product for collecting of receivables of unsecured loans. After the division separated and became the independent company, it connected the activity with outsourcing of developers. In particular, the company was engaged in search in the market of the most highly skilled and talented engineers, their organization in the specialized centers and providing this personnel resource far off to the hi-tech companies. As a rule, American.

Clients of the company at that time were, for example,Synopsys and Mentor Graphics – creators of a CAD for development of crystals for chips. When the centers grew to a certain level, customer companies often redeemed them, Alexander Friedland tells.

Notes