More momentum for vertical cloud computing as ClearDATA scores $25 million

The trend of top infrastructure-as-a-service giants pushing smaller players into niche markets has caught many traditional providers off guard, but you wouldn’t know that from ClearDATA Inc.’s new $25 million funding round. The capital will help fuel the development of its namesake public cloud, which has gained a tremendous amount of momentum on the back of that competitive shift.

The Phoenix-based outfit’s platform offers a specialized environment for organizations in the healthcare sector to remotely store backup copies of their data, which can often include patient details subject to stricter regulation than regular workloads. ClearDATA provides numerous features to help meet that heightened compliance standard, starting with a long list of certifications.

The compliance boasts compliance with HIPPA and the Health Information Trust Alliance’s security code as well as 99.999 percent server availability – which amounts to less than five minutes of downtime per year – that in turn addresses the need to keep healthcare records continuously available. The company complements that with value-added features as hosted desktop virtualization and medical image storage as well as professional services.

While not too unique in the broader cloud picture, ClearDATA’s value proposition has enabled its platform to stand out from the healthcare-focused crowd and attract major customers such as Health Care Service Corp. and Cardinal Health Intermountain Health Care Inc. that can’t simply turn to general-purpose alternatives. That helped the company more than double its subscription revenues over the last year, momentum that the new $25 million round is meant to accelerate.

The investment includes contributions from Heritage Group, HLM Venture Partners and Flare Capital Partners along with existing backers Norwest Venture Partners, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund and Excel Venture Management. The cash, which bumps ClearDATA’s total raised past the $40 million mark, will be used to sustain the continued development of its platform and expand competitive efforts.

About the Author: Maria Deutscher
Maria Deutscher is a staff writer for SiliconANGLE covering all things enterprise and fresh. Her work takes her from the bowels of the corporate network up to the great free ranges of the open-source ecosystem and back on a daily basis, with the occasional pit stop in the world of end-users. She is especially passionate about cloud computing and data analytics, although she also has a soft spot for stories that diverge from the beaten track to provide a more unique perspective on the complexities of the industry.

Originally published May 28, 2015 by the Silicon Angle
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2015/05/28/more-momentum-for-vertical-cloud-computing-as-cleardata-scores-25-million/