Reigning in the cloud: Cloud cost ⬇️ and performance ⬆️ using CAST AI.

Amazon Web Services launched in 2006 and set off a wave of infrastructure cloud computing. Since then many other cloud providers have come to market as well as a host of products and services to manage and operate your infrastructure. More or less every modern software company relies on cloud computing today, however, this heterogeneous market has created an environment defined by its complexity, littered with redundancies and inefficiencies. The result of this is cloud computing is expensive. One study from a16z found that cloud spend for software companies can be as high as 80% of their revenue costs. That’s unsustainable — especially in the macro environment we’re in today.

Hence, many software companies are looking for remedies for this. Some are even trying to repatriate their workloads from the cloud to on-prem, but this comes with another list of challenges. Instead, what most companies do is throw bodies at the problem by hiring DevOps specialists (more on these guys in a moment 👀).

Cue the world of automation: what if there was software that could manage this for you? Like really cut your cloud costs by an average of 60%, while also improving performance?

Enter: CAST AI—Creandum’s latest portfolio company.

DevOps… what?

First, a quick word on DevOps. It’s essentially a framework to help IT teams and developers better deliver the speed and quality of software deployment. Higher velocity. Quicker iterations. Increased performance. Everything. Atlassian did a great summary of it here if you want to read more.

As cloud computing — and its costs — has grown, so has the need for DevOps teams and specialists. Between 2015 and 2019, job postings for DevOps roles grew by over 400%. 90% of business leaders cite DevOps as a top strategic priority. But filling these positions isn’t easy and, as such, a huge skills gap exists. Only 12% of businesses describe their DevOps capabilities as mature.

This is where CAST AI comes in. It’s an automated DevOps platform that allows software businesses to optimize their cloud infrastructure far better than a human ever could. And the results are incredible.

Why CAST AI and why now?

CAST AI’s entry point into this world is by focusing specifically on Kubernetes (K8s) platform, specifically to deliver an autonomous Kubernetes (Kubernetes is Google’s open-source container orchestration system and the most popular mainstream approach for software developers to build their cloud infrastructure).

Its first product was an automated cost optimization solution for K8s which, on average, reduces cloud computing costs by 6o%. In minutes. Powered by AI, it analyses multiple data points to find an optimal cost-performance ratio. The platform delivers a cost-efficient, high-performing, and resilient infrastructure for all types of Kubernetes workloads. It’s since added a cost monitoring service and security insights so companies can detect, monitor and prioritize any K8s vulnerabilities.

All of this is hugely beneficial to most companies, in both the short term and the long term, and therefore of great interest to everyone here at Creandum.

In the short term, the current macro-environment has got every company looking through their cloud costs and removing anything unnecessary. CAST AI does that — and then some. This frees up vital cash but it also aids faster growth and reduces engineer effort and the need to hire expensive DevOps personnel.

But over time, by using CAST AI, companies are able to automatically scale up and down their clusters based on real-time demands, improving the delivery and performance of the application. Again, fully automated without human intervention. Instant payback from lowered cloud bills, while enhancing performance is the 10x improvement we look for at Creandum.

Strap on for explosive growth.

This appetite is backed up by growth that is almost unheard of in this sort of macro market. CAST AI went to market less than 18 months ago and has seen quarter-by-quarter revenue growth of over 220% and already worked with some of the biggest customers in the world, including Iterable, OpenX, Branch, and more. This strong, clearly defined customer base demonstrates a clear target audience and proves that there’s a real hunger and demand in the market from large and small companies.

A winning, experienced team.

The CAST AI founders, Yuri Frayman, Leon Kuperman, and Laurent Gil, are all serial entrepreneurs with successful exits to Google, Oracle, and Comcast. CAST AI was born out of the frustrations they had with their previous startup, Zenedge, where they first-hand experienced an ever-growing cloud bill. They tried many things to optimize their infrastructure and spending, and realized there was a real opportunity to build a standalone product for this specific problem. After selling the company, the founders teamed up again to found CAST AI.

Needless to say, we couldn’t be more excited for a seasoned team of serial founders who have successfully worked together for many years and have lived through the pain they are solving for. As such, we’re happy to announce that Creandum has led CAST AI’s latest round, raising $20M! With this funding, CAST AI will be able to expand on its already significant progress and capitalize further on the huge market opportunity it presents. The first step is to expand the platform’s capabilities to more cloud-native ecosystems and use cases.

Having already achieved explosive growth in a troubled market and with the tailwind of strong demand behind them, we can’t wait to see what they can achieve now. Welcome CAST AI to the #CreandumFamily.

PS — If you’re a company using K8s…what are you waiting for? Reach out to CAST AI today and cut your cloud bill instantly.

PS 2 — If you want to join this rocketship, they’re ofc hiring! All remote. Let’s go!