ClearCube

Last updated
ClearCube Technology
IndustryInformation Technology
Founded1997 (1997)
FounderAndrew Heller and Barry Thornton
Headquarters
Cedar Park, Texas
,
USA
ProductsComputer hardware, software and services
Parent ClearCube Holdings
Website ClearCube.com

ClearCube is a computer systems manufacturer based in Austin, Texas, owned by parent company ClearCube Holdings. The company became known for its blade PC products; [1] [2] it has since expanded its offerings to include desktop virtualization and VDI. It was founded in 1997 by Andrew Heller (former IBM Fellow) and Barry Thornton as Vicinity Systems. [3] [4]

Contents

In 2005, ClearCube derived about a third of its revenue from virtual infrastructure products sold into the financial services sector, [5] with the majority of the rest of the revenue coming from customers in the health-care and government sectors. [3] [4] Since 2005, ClearCube has continued to focus on virtualization-capable hardware and management software, which has led to strong revenue growth. In 2011, the company announced 50% year-over-year revenue growth due to the strong performance of its virtual desktop products. [6]

In 2011, ClearCube acquired Dallas-based Network Elites. [7] The acquisition brought roughly 25 additional employees to the company and expanded ClearCube's Cloud services capabilities.

Partnerships

Until 2005, IBM was a reseller of the entire product line of ClearCube. Afterwards, IBM bundled some of its own hardware with ClearCube's software, and also diversified its software offering to include Citrix and VMware products. [2] When IBM sold its PC division to Lenovo, the latter also began reselling ClearCube blades. [3] [8] Other major PC manufactures, like HP, also began to compete in the blade PC niche around this time. [8] [9] Other resellers of ClearCube products included Hitachi and SAIC. [3]

In 2008, ClearCube spun off its software division as VDIworks, and while VDIworks has developed additional OEM relationships, [10] the two companies remain closely associated in OEM partnership, and share the same investors and owners. [11] In January 2008, ClearCube also introduced products implementing Teradici's PC-over-IP protocol, including two dual DVI thin clients, the I9420 I/Port and C7420 C/Port, which connect to the blades using copper-based and fiber-optic Ethernet, respectively. [12]

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References

  1. Ashlee Vance, (26th May 2004) ClearCube puts bells and whistles on blade PC, El Reg
  2. 1 2 China Marten (November 14, 2005) IBM, ClearCube to extend relationship, InfoWorld
  3. 1 2 3 4 Deni Connor, (July 18, 2005) Lenovo deal gives ClearCube a boost. PC blade maker ClearCube gets major reseller deal, Network World
  4. 1 2 Larry Greenemeier, (January 9, 2003) ClearCube Lands Another $20 Million In Funding. New money will support the company's blade desktop-computing technology. [ permanent dead link ], InformationWeek
  5. Darrell Dunn, (January 30, 2006) ClearCube, DataSynapse Add Grid-Enabled PC Blade Platform [ permanent dead link ], InformationWeek
  6. "ClearCube Technology Achieves 50 Percent Revenue Growth on Strong Sales of Virtual Desktop Products and Blade PCs" . Retrieved June 5, 2012.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. "ClearCube Technology Acquires Cloud Computing Provider Network Elites, Launches Public Cloud Service Offering and Expands Private Cloud Service Offering". Archived from the original on December 9, 2011. Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Tom Krazit, (Jul 11, 2005) Lenovo to Resell ClearCube Blade PCs Archived 2010-10-01 at the Wayback Machine , PC World
  9. "HP touts blade PC". The Register .
  10. "VDIworks and Circadence Sign OEM Agreement to Create WAN-optimized Virtual Solutions" . Retrieved June 5, 2012.
  11. David Marshall, (May 5, 2008) ClearCube spins off software business to VDIworks, InfoWorld
  12. Agam Shah, (January 24, 2008) ClearCube announces thin clients, Computerworld

Further reading