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Virima Technologies, Inc. |
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February 10, 2014 Issue |
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The Most Powerful Name In Corporate News and Information |
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Simplifying Enterprise IT Management and Transformation Projects |
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www.virima.comAn innovator in accelerated Data Center Transformation and IT Operations management, Virima Technologies enables businesses to adapt to today’s rapidly evolving technology frontier. Virima automates and simplifies complex data center consolidation, optimization and cloud migration projects while managing the risk associated with such transformations.
Its DCT FastPath™ Product
and Program Management leverages industry experts, proven methodologies and
the world’s first autonomic discovery and correlation software with built-in
transformation program management. Virima’s high-tech approach to data
center transformation provides effective alignment of an organization’s IT
operations and assets with its business strategy and processes. The result
is data center transformation projects completed faster with significant
savings over typical industry approaches. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia,
Virima serves organizations worldwide.
A true leader in the
business community, he is involved in several professional and community
organizations. Raja formerlyserved on the Board of Directors for Vigilar,
currently serves on the Board of Directors of Virima and sits on an array of
advisory boards for several early stage technology firms around the country.
Rajan was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta CEO High Tech Council,
where he serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. He also
co-founded and serves on the Board of Directors for The Indus Entrepreneurs
(TIE) Atlanta Chapter. Rajan was honored as Georgia Trend’s “40 under 40″
Rising Stars in 2000. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering
and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from the Florida Institute of
Technology. |
IT Transformation &Operations
Virima
Technologies, Inc.
404-969-4180
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Interview conducted by: Lynn
Fosse, Senior Editor, CEOCFO Magazine, Published – February 10, 2014 CEOCFO: Mr. Rajan, what is the vision at Virima Technologies? Mr. Rajan: We founded Virima Technologies with the intent to simplify the complexities of enterprise IT management and transformation projects. The ability to maintain or evolve data centers and technology systems creates an array of complex problems. Many organizations refuse to migrate over to the cloud or adapt other components specifically because of their vast and complicated nature. The biggest challenge is the sheer amount of information. How do you simplify this? How do you consolidate to streamline operations? My approach has been to think about how we can make software to do more intelligent things in efforts to increase efficiency. Just like anything else in life, you have to believe that the best way to operate efficiently is to minimize your risk. That means, if you are managing your risk; you’re decreasing uncertainties and operating well. It’s important to have a visual representation of the risk and incorporate into business planning. We came up with the name Virima, by extracting the first two characters from the phrase encompassing our ultimate goal: “visual risk management technologies.”
CEOCFO: When would a company come to you? Mr. Rajan: We have three different lines of business. Our first line of business is data center and IT operations. We manage with our EcosystemManager™ products. EcosystemManager™ allows you to visualize all the assets in your environment and ensure they are operating in an efficient manner. We also allow you to see the risk present within your ecosystem, effectively manage them, and also plan for unforeseen circumstances that could harm business. Say you are planning to a migration or an upgrade. We help you understand how successfully execute while proactively mitigating the risk involved.
Our second line of business, data center foundation and transformation, actually goes hand in hand with the EcosystemManager product I just discussed. In this area we actually do consulting work by leveraging the technology (EcosystemManager) to conduct complex data center migration projects. Some businesses might want to move from one physical place to the other. Others might be dealing with the integration of data after an acquisition. Data centers are expensive and when you acquire an extra ten saving money is a priority. By consolidating many data centers into one, we help enterprises reduce cost and enhance productivity. We use both software and the expertise of seasoned industry professionals to help them with the project management, the program management and all things necessary to make that data center architecture and software, the systems, the server design. Data centers are elaborate. We understand that and focus on making them simple, clean and functional.
Our third land latest line of business is within our latest acquisition of a company called Aruvio. Aruvio’s cloud-based platform allows us to now provide a full set of governance, risk and compliance solutions. The system allows organizations to adapt an integrated risk intelligence methodology and execute a top-down approach to risk management by incorporating into business continuity planning.
Aruvio has many applications. From compliance management for regulatory and industry requirements such as HIPPA, ISO or PCI to audit management where we take the pain out of subsequent audits, the biggest benefit is that Aruvio provides a central storage repository for all policies and procedures. Organizations can easily view control hierarchy and demonstrate governance activity. Aruvio also has applications to manage supplier relationships, third party vendors, internal polices and also incident or IT security related events. Those are out three lines of business. All of them revolve around the theme: reduce risk and increase operational efficiency for each department outside of IT and for the entire enterprise.
CEOCFO: Is there a typical customer for you? Mr. Rajan: We have customers in all sizes in every vertical. The nice thing that we did with all of our software: it’s all Software as a Service, SaaS. Our model is to build “best of breed” products for each segments and take them to market with a valued pricing that is affordable to small and medium sized businesses and global enterprises alike.
CEOCFO: How do you reach potential customers? Mr. Rajan: We have three different sales strategies. With some of the larger customers we leverage our existing relationships and direct sales efforts. We have a strong management team, and staff and rely upon our experience. We have been in the technology business for over twenty years and have quite a few close networking relationships we leverage to get to customers. The second mechanism for how we acquire customers is through our outreach to all of the influencers in the community; the bloggers and the analysts. We create the best product, and we will tell you it’s the best, but a third party has to validate that. We work with many industry contacts to validate and also improve our products. In fact, SC, Security and Compliance Magazine recently did a review of our Aruvio GRC compliance product. The last way we reach potential customers is through in inbound marketing techniques. We have approaches that are designed to target specific company sizes and segments.
CEOCFO: With Aruvio, were you looking for a company or were you looking to have an offering for that function or was Aruvio available and you realized that was a good match? Mr. Rajan: We do not actually look for companies that are looking to sell. However, Aruvio was a strategic purchase. We heard about them and initiated conversation to see how we could bring them onto our platform and whether or not they would be a good fit with our company. It was a good fit for our strategic vision. We have identified certain gaps in certain areas where technology transformation is needed. We are keeping our eye out for companies with excellent products and individuals with great talents. We will work with them even if they are a tiny company. We work with great developers and great founders to figure out how they can be part of our Virima family.
CEOCFO: When does a company realize that they need EcosystemManager? Do you find many companies proactively looking? Are they coming to you when they have had a crisis of sorts? Mr. Rajan: One of the things that we have found is that people do data center transformations once every five or ten years. Therefore, we wait for those transitional periods. We are working on some new developments for EcosystemManager that will be available towards the end of this year. We can deploy it in an existing environment and immediately realize the value within a matter of days or weeks. Same with our Aruvio product, it’s something that can put it in today and receive instant value. Organizations must always manage risk. We can take out and leave behind the overhead cost of being compliant and other components because when an organization properly manages risk, it adds directly to the company’s bottom line. We are trying to help organizations develop a continuous process for this to receive maximum value.
CEOCFO: How is business these days? Mr. Rajan: Business is good! I am supposed to take a much needed break with the family for a short weekend getaway and I could not get out of the office today! There are a lot of phone calls and a lot of requests and lots of partner activity. We are getting a lot of partners who wish to resell our product. This activity requires training. While we are talking about it we are putting out a fourth avenue of going to market which is heading up our channel partnerships and setting our reseller program, where we will have partner companies that will take this to the customers as well.
CEOCFO: What is your geographic reach today? Mr. Rajan: Right now we sell primarily in the USA and Canada. We are hoping to grow our global presence and further expand into other countries sometime next year.
CEOCFO: What is the competitive landscape? Are there many companies that specialize in your area? Mr. Rajan: Absolutely! In fact, this is a very mature business segment in terms of transformative IT needs. In each of the categories that we are in, probably about twenty or thirty companies doing something similar on the software side. Maybe even as high as forty, I do not know. However, there are a large number of companies. However, the need is so high and the market is so huge that it does not matter. One fortunate benefit we have is the ability to leverage our team of industry experts who have been around for a while and know the market extremely well. We also continually to enhance our technology to ensure it’s cutting edge. In turn we believe that we will have a very nice share and over time a significant share of that market.
CEOCFO: You have had a number of ventures in your past. What have you learned that has been most helpful for you at Virima? Mr. Rajan: Patience. I say that with a little bit of a chuckle, because if you look at when we started Virima, times were tough. We navigated through that and the company did thrive beyond those years and continued to grow. In the past and in several other ventures I’ve seen an urgency to go and run faster and grow faster, sometimes at the risk of not building a really solid foundation for the company. I’ve learned to be careful- to make sure that every move that we make adds to the company vision. I’ve learned to be careful, not chase after trends and not go to market with an incomplete product. It’s also important to make sure that we have sufficient resources. Start-ups are fast paced. If you do not keep up, you won’t last. Therefore, part of the lessons learned is really to be very patient and prudent in every step. We are here for the long haul, so making smart business decisions is important.
CEOCFO: Why does Virima standout as a company? Why should investors and people in the business community be paying attention?
Mr. Rajan:
We have a fantastic
product and management team, talent development team and our focus is to
build fantastic products. We are great people to work with. We have been on
the different sides of the value chain and we have a lot of solid
experience. We deliver extremely quality products of high value at an
extremely competitive price point. We bring high value to the customers at a
fraction of the cost. Then we back it up with fantastic support. We make it
very easy for people to do business with us. Those are the criteria. Those
are the simple foundations of any successful business. I think we have
mastered it. I like to be humble and say that we like to keep improving, but
we are really great on that front as well. |
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IT Transformation & Operations, Virima Technologies, Inc., Tech Companies, CEO Interviews 2014, Simplifying Enterprise IT Management and Transformation Projects, accelerated Data Center Transformation and IT Operations management, DCT FastPath™ Product and Program Management, Cloud Migration, Compliance Controls, Data Center Transformation, Next Generation GCR, DCT Program Management, Recent CEO Interviews, Tech Stock, Technology Stocks, adapt to a rapidly evolving technology frontier, automate and simplifies complex data center consolidation, optimization and cloud migration projects while managing the risk associated with such transformations, leverages industry experts, proven methodologies and the world’s first autonomic discovery and correlation software with built-in transformation program management, high-tech approach to data center transformation for effective alignment of an organization’s IT operations and assets with its business strategy and processes, data center transformation projects completed faster with significant savings over typical industry approaches, Virima Technologies, Inc. Press Releases, News, Companies looking for venture capital, Angel Investors, private companies looking for investors, technology companies seeking investors, IT transformation companies needing investment capital |
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Palaniswamy
“Raj” Rajan