Infrastructure-as-code provider DuploCloud lands $15M to expand its platform

Infrastructure as code (IaC), is the process of provisioning and managing infrastructure defined through code instead of doing so via a manual process. Since infrastructure is defined as code, users can edit and distribute configurations while ensuring the desired state of the infrastructure — creating reproducible configurations.

While some surveys suggest that organizations haven’t determined the “right” way to use IaC, IaC adoption is on the rise. In a recent poll conducted by Driftcl, 62% of developer respondents said that they’re using at least one IaC tool in their workflow. Companies, meanwhile, cite IaC benefits such as faster speed and consistency (because developers don’t have to wait for IT infrastructure admins to complete certain tasks) and a more efficient software development lifecycle (because developers can script once and use the code multiple times).

One among the growing number of IaC software vendors on the market is DuploCloud, which was founded in 2018 by Venkat Thiruvengadam, a former senior software engineer on the Microsoft Azure networking team. Thiruvengadam claims that DuploCloud — which today announced that it raised $15 million — enables customers to implement up to “hundreds” of infrastructure changes with “minimal to no” resources, through automation.

Diving into IaC

An early staffer at Microsoft Azure and a founding member of Azure’s networking team, Thiruvengadam wrote parts of Azure’s compute and network controller stack while seeing Azure grow to millions of nodes in a few years. After leaving Microsoft, Thiruvengadam says, he observed that automation techniques in infrastructure management hadn’t made their way outside of companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google.

“For IT and C-level, it is very difficult to find and hire DevOps engineers,” Thiruvengadam told VentureBeat via email. “Most cloud security software solutions are employed for post-provisioning and monitoring of the security and compliance controls, limiting their impact to a mere 30% of the entire solution. This leaves the core of the problem to be solved by human DevOps experts writing thousands of lines of automation code. The manual process of writing code to build infrastructure, using multiple tools, and making additional changes before redeploying the code is time-consuming and expensive, making it difficult for startups and small businesses to go to market quickly while staying on budget.”

Thiruvengadam argues that DuploCloud can help by translating high-level application specifications into cloud environment configurations. With preprogrammed knowledge of popular cloud services, the platform can automatically create and provision IaC for an application with compliance, monitoring, and auditing tools. DuploCloud also offers data migration from on-premises systems to the cloud, or cloud to cloud. In addition, it enables companies to build and operate apps on the edge as if they were a cloud instance with the same automation and security capabilities.

“DuploCloud enables secure and on-demand access for development teams, accelerating the adoption of cloud-native application architecture. The solution frees devops engineers from mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on activities that truly differentiate the business,” Thiruvengadam added. “[For example,] in November 2021, DuploCloud announced a partnership with Kami Vision … This includes a suite of core services such as video streaming, analytics and storage, mobile software development kits, and camera firmware with edge AI.”

Challenges in IaC

DuploCloud, like its competitors Oak9 and Accurics (which was recently acquired by Tenable), faces adoption hurdles in the enterprise. IaC isn’t without its challenges — as CloudBolt Software’s Nilesh Deo writes, IaC can be more code-dependent than alternatives and isn’t always compatible with legacy security and monitoring tools.

In a 2021 Synk survey, only 7% of companies said at they’d implemented IaC to “the best of current industry capabilities.” Sixty-three percent conceded that they’re just beginning to explore the possibilities of the technology.

Thiruvengadam says that the pandemic increased interest in IaC, though, driving DuploCloud’s revenue to grow 270% year-over-year. “[It’s now more] difficult for startups selling to enterprise organizations to find DevOps engineers,” he added. “DuploCloud enables secure and on-demand access for development teams, accelerating the adoption of cloud-native application architecture.

Sixteen-employee, San Jose, California-based DuploCloud, which claims to have over 50 customers, charges a monthly subscription fee for use of its software and ongoing compliance monitoring. According to Thiruvengadam, the funds from DuploCloud’s series A (led by Mayfield with participation from Monta Vista Capital) will be put toward product development, sales, and marketing efforts.

DuploCloud’s total capital raised stands at $17.5 million.