EnCloudEn offers private cloud infrastructure with open source tools

A cloud engine for today’s enterprises, it offers a complete set of tools to deploy, manage, monitor, and orchestrate private cloud-based IT infrastructure.

Started five years ago, EnCloudEn stayed on the backburner for its founders until 2015 as they had then chosen to focus on their core IoT startup SmartBuildings. However, Satya Kishore and Abinash Saikia have since focussed on EnCloudEn.

Indian companies increasingly looking at startups to fulfil their need for software solutions for enterprises on the cloud, the Bengaluru-based company is delivering and managing private cloud-based IT infrastructure, helping mid-sized organisations attain IT transformation swiftly, at less than half the cost.

Touted among India’s most promising technology startups, EnCloudEn is a TECH30 company announced by YourStory at TechSparks 2017.

The making of an idea

Satya and Abinash, batchmates at IIT Madras, founded EnCloudEn along with SmartBuildings, which they are now in the process of winding up, and looking at a possible sale.

Satya has a BTech in Engineering Physics, while Abinash graduated in Biotech Engineering. The former went on to work at Intel, and Abinash joined IIM (Bangalore) and later Biocon. At IIM, Abinash met Vishwa V Narayan who later joined EnCloudEn as the third co-founder.

Interestingly, both Satya and Abinash do not have an academic background in information technology, but their interest in all things technological formed the basis of their entrepreneurial forays.

“At IIT, I was the technical secretary for my batch. I understood that computer science was always a tool for getting things done. The lab was under my purview and it was my first stint with IT management. While I was working with Intel, I used to have an interface with the IT department. Cloud was starting up at that time and it was transforming the way IT worked. My technical knowledge comes from intense self-learning,” says Satya.

Satya and Abinash kept in touch even after IIT and came together to start SmartBuildings. Also, once the concept and idea for EnClouden were in place, it was incubated at IIM.

On the cloud

So what does EnCloudEn do? Satya explains: “It offers private, cloud-based information technology for organisations looking to set up an internal datacentre. It facilitates on-premise private cloud as a better alternative to public cloud, consolidation of IT workloads with private clouds, deployment of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), delivery of IT for users in a bring your own device (BYOD), among others.”

Abinash adds, “Traditionally, IT as a service is infrastructure on the premises. Today, the trend is that a lot of organisations want to have a rental model, they want somebody else to manage it for them, preferably on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model. EnCloudEn encashes on that need. It is the perfect cloud engine for today’s enterprises, equipped with a complete set of tools to deploy, manage, monitor, and orchestrate a private cloud-based IT infrastructure.”

The company had its big break when it got biotech major Biocon as its customer. Since then, it has added other major clients like Royal Orchid Hotels, Corporation Bank, Manipal Technologies and Toshiba. “Our focus was on the founders making the first 10 big sales. Later, the sales team could replicate the selling model,” says Satya.

The biggest regret the founders have is starting off with zero capital. “This is one of the hardest lessons we learnt while starting up. We pooled in our savings and went without salaries for three-four years,” says Abinash. The company, however, raised funding of $300,000 from a group of angel investors last year.

Competition and future plans

EnCloudEn claims that though there are companies in India that operate under a services model, they do not have a full product suite like theirs. Therefore, it occupies a niche that can be used to full advantage.

“All our customers are repeat buyers who have increased their footprint with us, the feedback is encouraging. We have started small and grown steadily,” shares Abinash.

“Our aim, of course, is to procure more funding and take it big. We really feel there are very few enterprise-grade software behemoths from India though Zoho is getting there. There are the ‘Microsofts’, the ‘Ciscos’ but a clear lack of homegrown companies in the product sector,” adds Satya.