Lance Crosby is playing an encore. The former CEO of SoftLayer -- which IBM acquired for $2 billion in 2013 -- is piecing together another cloud services company. This time, the focus involves StackPath -- a secure edge services platform that improves Web application performance and security for customers.
StackPath has been in M&A mode. The latest deal involves Server Density -- which enables users to monitor their websites and servers in the cloud or on-premises from a single console. Through the platform and associated API integrations, customers can diagnose problems, maintain uptime and maximize server performance, Server Density says. Financial terms of the M&A deal, which surfaced this week, were not disclosed.
Server Density brings a lot to the table. The company's monitoring agent is installed on millions of servers, and collects more than 12 billion metrics each day, the company claims. The service has more than 100 official integrations, processes more than 300TB of data per month, and has availability probes in more than 28 different geographies.
StackPath's Sales Partner Program
StackPath has also been building out a sales partner program. So far it includes:
- Dedicated sales/support training
- Marketing collateral and sales tools
- Co-selling and direct sales support
Marissa Bybee, who recently joined StackPath as director of channel sales, said in a prepared statement, “Partners can deploy our VPN and CDN services as add-ons to their own services, creating additional stickiness with their consumer and enterprise customers alike. We have even more channel-ready options in the works that will allow partners to deliver their own private labeled security offerings.”
Bybee has considerable experience in the cloud services and IT channel sectors. She previously held key posts at 2nd Watch -- a Top 50 MSP focused on Amazon Web Services -- and Arrow Electronics. Earlier, she worked for The Planet -- a hosting provider that merged and transformed into SoftLayer ahead of that company's sale to IBM.
StackPath's Growth Strategy
It sounds like StackPath had considerable momentum even before the new partner program and Server Density deal arrived.
From mid 2016 through January 2018, StackPath increased its customer count from 50,000 to more than one million, and its annual revenue run rate from $16 million to almost $200 million.
Much of the momentum involved M&A. StackPath merged technologies from multiple acquisitions into a single platform and launched its initial product offering, SecureCDN, a content delivery network with a built-in Web Application Firewall (WAF) and DDoS protection included at no additional charge.
StackPath claims a modular approach allows the company to plug acquired technologies into the platform, with little to no disruption of services during the integration process.
In a prepared statement, Crosby hinted that more moves are coming: “With the integration work we’ve completed and the announcements we will make throughout 2018, I have no doubt we’ll reach our second million customer mark even faster than the first.”
Additional insights from Joe Panettieri.
