Artisan Infrastructure competes in the fiercely competitive IaaS (infrastructure as a service) market, hoping to build a pure channel-centric alternative to Rackspace, Amazon Web Services and other cloud titans. Artisan claims that it never — ever — sells directly to end customers. Instead, Artisan empowers third-party MSPs and emerging services providers to build and deploy self-selected SaaS applications on Artisan’s infrastructure. So is the strategy working?
Artisan is privately held so it’s difficult for MSPmentor to pinpoint all the key financial metrics. But Artisan CEO Brian Hierholzer (pictured) said the company is profitable, and experiencing 20 percent compound monthly growth. The company has about 20 employees, and expects to double headcount to 40 people in 2012, with a stretch goal of perhaps 60 employees on the horizon.
Responsible IaaS Growth
Artisan has no need for venture capital or private equity, Hierholzer said. Each time Artisan purchase new server or network hardware, there’s already revenue attached to that purchase to ensure responsible growth, Hierholzer said. It sounds like roughly 250 MSPs are running services on Artisan’s infrastructure.
Instead of selecting SaaS applications on its own, Artisan defers the entire process to MSPs and emerging service providers.
- The MSPs decide which applications to license from a specific ISV.
- The MSP can then take the SaaS application and deploy it on Artisan’s platform, using the ISV’s service provider licensing guidelines.
- Artisan, meantime, works with a range of ISVs — including Asigra, StorageCraft and CA Technologies — to make sure the apps are well-suited for MSPs to deploy on Artisan’s infrastructure.
The strategy didn’t emerge overnight. Hierholzer initially targeted the telcom market around 2001, then shifted to VoIP in 2004. By 2010, Hierholzer and his team had an ah-hah moment. “Nobody was providing IaaS in a way that allowed emerging service providers to build, manage and run a service as if it was their own,” he recalled.
Direct Cloud Sales?
So will Artisan ever offer hosted SaaS applications that MSPs can white label or end-customers can purchase on their own? “That would go against everything we stand for,” said Hierholzer. “Our customers — the service providers — have a direct relationship with the ISV.” Artisan, meanwhile, can help the MSP to facilitate an architecture design or solution with the ISV.
Hierholzer concedes that it could be challenging for Artisan to work with a long list of ISVs. “That is going to be a challenge. It’s an extremely cumbersome, challenging approach where we do the heavy lifting,” he said.
Still, Artisan benefits from the fact that so many software companies are launching their own clouds and selling SaaS directly to end-customers. “The [software] vendors are becoming competitors,” he said. “There is more IT competition coming downstream to the SMB market because services are now delivered over the web.”
In stark contrast, Hierholzer said, Artisan’s ISV partners are channel-centric.
Generally speaking, I can’t think of another IaaS provider that is 100 percent channel- and service provider focused.
- Is that a sign of brilliance?
- Or a sign of a niche market that will be difficult to build?
So far, Hierholzer and his team have delivered profitable growth… so perhaps Artisan is onto something.
Read More About This Topic
Share This Post
Posted In: Cloud Computing | Partner Program
Tags: Amazon Web Services | artisan infrastructure | Asigra | CA Technologies | Cloud Services | IaaS | Infrastructure as a Service | Rackspace Hosting | StorageCraft
Interact: Add a Comment | Trackback Link | Permalink
Subscribe: RSS Feed
Take a look at our 
Interesting article, but somewhat disappointing. There are several IaaS providers who service the MSP market, including a number that have been featured on this site. One would hope to see better balance in a “news” article.
6fusion has been selling IaaS services to and through the MSP / VAR market ONLY since 2009. We also do not focus on selling 3rd party software, unlike others, some of which might be mentioned in this article. (Disclaimer – we, along with most IaaS vendors provide / sell Microsoft SPLA licensing). We also provide an ecosystem of software solutions tested for our cloud offering, with which we empower the MSP ecosystem for success through a matchmaking process from which we don’t profit from the software licensing. We have been doing this for more than a year. This is not new.
I know of at least one other vendor, who is well known to the author of this article, who focuses an IaaS offering to the channel.
I am disappointed that this paid advertisement is not clearly identified as such (Please note that Artisan is listed on this site as a gold sponsor). MSPMentor has in the past always allowed sponsors the opportunity to have their content included in the news stream, but has typically disclosed exactly what those articles are.
Rob,
Constructive criticism is always welcome on MSPmentor. We cover a lot of vendors and a lot of ground on MSPmentor every day. Sometimes we overlook some of the players. For that I apologize.
I’ll keep 6fusion in mind as we plan future coverage. But please don’t raise the bull*** line about an advertiser getting favorable coverage in the blog post above.
Is there a channel reporter or media company other than Nine Lives that has reached out to you and 6fusion more than us in the past three years?
I respect your work. But your thesis above about a sponsor influencing my article is insulting.
-jp
Joe -
I’ve had a tremendous amount of respect for you and your work since the day I met you at a show in Chicago back in early 2006 (ironically, when I began the quest to produce a channel-only cloud play). MSP Mentor was a beacon of insight for us as we built our company up from its infancy and continues to be an important industry barometer so far as I am concerned.
If I can add a measure of tempered rationality to this comments thread, I think it is because you know us and our pedigree so well that the title of your post may have raised some eyebrows and perhaps (somewhat) called into question the motives for writing it.
That said, I think the debate and discourse is healthy and I commend the small regional operators like Artisan for recognizing the importance of the channel — which is how I interpreted the thrust of your piece. As I recently published over a four part series on our blog, I think the channel will play a crucial role in how the cloud story will unfold. You can read about it here: http://www.6fusion.com/2011/10/24/part-i-cloud-computing-and-the-future-of-the-it-channel/
As always, comments and feedback are welcome.
I appreciate you covering us and I hope to see you sometime on the 2012 tour – and congrats again on the recent corporate success of Nine Lives!!
Cheers,
John Cowan
6fusion Founder & CEO
Joe -
All good points. I apologize for the implied insult – not my intention.
I look forward to reading and continuing to work with Nine Lives in 2012.
Rob
John, Rob:
We appreciate your readership. You get emotional about your business because you love it. I get emotional about our editorial coverage because I’m passionate about it. So, something was bound to get a bit emotional in the comment string above. Thanks for sharing your views, today and always.
Best
-jp