Cloud data migration platform vendor Silk said it raised $55 million in a Series B funding round to ramp up go-to-market efforts for its technology that enables users to optimize database deployment in the cloud.
Migrating databases to the cloud can often be a complex challenge with technical problems, cost concerns and data management requirements.
Silk, based in Needham, Mass., revealed the new funding on July 7. The startup is among the vendors aiming to help organizations with the challenge of optimizing the migration and management of cloud databases.
What Silk does for traditional relational databases is somewhat unusual, said Bryan Betts, principal analyst at Freeform Dynamics.
The vendor provides an abstraction layer that is able to work both with public clouds and on-site platforms. As such, the Silk approach should interest organizations that need to migrate or replicate existing database applications to the cloud.
"Our research suggests there's a big pool of older database applications that need rehoming as their current hardware platforms reach end of life," Betts said. "And for those users, this presents a solution that's, potentially, a lot simpler, faster and cheaper than a complete cloud-native rewrite."
As for potential limitations, Betts noted that Silk is tailored to running big relational databases in the public cloud and is less effective for other types of databases, including those that are already cloud native.
There's a big pool of older database applications that need rehoming as their current hardware platforms reach end of life.
Bryan BettsPrincipal analyst, Freeform Dynamics
"But once you move away from those traditional databases, it has less to offer," Betts said. "Modern cloud-native databases don't have to compromise or adapt to run in a public cloud."
Why Silk is raising money for cloud database management and migration
Dani Golan, CEO and founder of Silk, said the past year and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for many organizations. But with the increasing volume of remote work and an even more distributed workforce, the need for cloud databases has grown.
"In 2020, it became very clear to global companies that they need to move most mission-critical environments to the cloud," Golan said.
He said funding will help Silk develop its partner programs, as well as build out its technology for improved performance as it tries to grow its business and attract new customers.
How Silk enables cloud database management
Golan said the vendor's platform provides a high-performance virtualization layer that enables organizations to optimize databases in the cloud.
For organizations migrating an on-premises database to the cloud, it can often be an involved process to understand what compute and storage resources are needed.
Golan said that with Silk, a user can effectively "drag and drop" an existing database into the Silk Platform. With its virtualized layer, Silk will figure out what compute, memory, network and storage specifications are required and then set up and manage the database. The platform will also scale resources up and down as required, based on demand.
The Silk Platform enables users to manage cloud database resources and deployments across multiple cloud providers.
Golan emphasized that the Silk Platform is a proprietary technology that uses a distributed operating system. The platform provides multi-cloud support, so users can choose to deploy on AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.
"Behind the scenes, customers shouldn't care if they're running on 10 virtual servers or 100 virtual servers. We take care of the database resources," Golan said.
The funding round was led by S Capital, with participation from existing investors including Sequoia Capital.
