Platform9 Systems

Platform9 Systems provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) managed platform for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, enabling enterprises to centrally manage virtual machines (VMs), containers, and serverless functions across any infrastructure. The company was founded in 2013 by Sirish Raghuram, Madhura Maskasky, Roopak Parikh, and Bich Le, a team of early engineers from VMware with extensive experience in virtualization and cloud technologies. Their collective background at VMware, working on products like vSphere and vCloud Director, directly informed Platform9's mission to simplify private cloud adoption, which they perceived as overly complex for most enterprises.

The company's business model is centered on a subscription-based SaaS offering that turns a client's existing infrastructure—whether on-premises, in public clouds, or at the edge—into a flexible, self-service cloud. Platform9 generates revenue through annual recurring revenue (ARR) and by charging for its managed services, which includes automated upgrades, security patching, monitoring, and support with a guaranteed service-level agreement (SLA). This approach targets enterprises looking to modernize their IT infrastructure, implement DevOps practices, and reduce operational overhead without being locked into a single vendor's hardware or hypervisor stack. Key clients include large enterprises in the telecom, retail, media, and technology sectors such as Juniper Networks, Redfin, and Snapfish.

Platform9's core product is a unified management plane that simplifies the deployment and lifecycle management of open-source cloud frameworks, primarily Kubernetes and OpenStack. It provides a "single pane of glass" to manage distributed infrastructure, allowing IT teams to deploy containerized applications with Kubernetes, run traditional VMs, or migrate from legacy virtualization platforms like VMware. The platform is designed to work with a customer's existing servers and storage infrastructure from providers like EMC and NetApp. Its key features include automated day-2 operations, remote monitoring and troubleshooting, high availability, and a self-service portal for developers. This managed service model allows organizations to offload the complexity of operating cloud-native technologies, which is a significant benefit given the scarcity and high cost of specialized talent.

Keywords: managed kubernetes, hybrid cloud management, private cloud platform, OpenStack as a service, container orchestration, edge computing, multi-cloud management, VMware alternative, infrastructure as a service, DevOps automation, cloud-native infrastructure, SaaS management plane, data center virtualization, bare metal orchestration, Kubernetes-as-a-Service, serverless computing, enterprise IT infrastructure, cloud transformation, container management, VM management