Simplivity nabs $58M for its data center in a box

Simpliviy, a startup that claims to redefine the data center, just nabbed a massive $58 million in a third round of funding.

The company, which is founded by an Israeli entrepreneur, is working to consolidate specialized hardware from multiple vendors. The company competes with Nutanix, a company that is growing extremely quickly, and is positioned by the press as the “VMware of the data center.”

What Simplivity offers is an appliance that can plug in and manage multiple tasks, such as server and server virtualization, backup, networking, WAN optimization, and so on. The core value proposition for companies: Why bother with multiple appliances when one can do the trick?

Simplivity and its competitors, including Nutanix, offer an alternative to the IT legacy providers like IBM and HP. These giants are promoting converged data center appliances, but also sell standalone software — as we reported, it’s a bit of a conflict of interest.

The company was founded by Doron Kempel, a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about simplifying IT infrastructure — hence Simplivity’s name. Kempel is a  former VP at EMC, who started the company in 2009.

Simplivity raised its funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ Digital Growth Fund and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The round also includes current investors Accel Partners and Charles River Ventures, along with new participants Meritech Capital Partners and Swisscom AG.