SkyKick today announced the launch of a new category of cloud management products called Cloud Management-as-a-Service (CMaaS) designed to help information technology (IT) solution providers manage their customers' cloud-based applications from one single platform. SkyKick's cloud management products enable IT partners to migrate, backup and centrally manage cloud data and services for popular cloud products such as Microsoft Office 365 and Dropbox. Combined with SkyKick's award-winning Migration Suites that have been used by thousands of partners to move tens of thousands of businesses to Office 365, IT providers now have one unified platform with integrated applications to grow their cloud customer base and create more operational efficiency in managing their customers in the cloud.

According to the SMB Group, there are over a billion small and medium-sized business (SMB) employees worldwide. SkyKick research shows that the typical company uses three cloud applications, and the management of cloud applications takes three hours per employee per year on average. Since a typical IT partner manages 1,000 employees across their customer base, this represents 3,000 hours of cloud management cost per partner annually, or over three billion hours of cloud management activity every year. Today, IT solution providers don't have an easy way to migrate, backup and manage all of their customers' cloud applications.

'We are excited to usher in the next era for SkyKick -- a global software company delivering cloud management solutions for partners,' said Todd Schwartz, SkyKick co-founder and co-CEO. 'Cloud usage is expected to double in the next three years, and the average IT partner will soon have over 5,000 customer cloud touch points to administer, which can be incredibly complex and time-consuming for solution providers to backup and manage. With the release of our new cloud management products, it's another step forward for us in delivering innovative products to help partners around the world provide a more successful, efficient and safe cloud experience for their customers on one unified platform.'

Strategic Financing

SkyKick also announced today it has secured $10 million in strategic financing bringing its total capital raised to $17.2 million. SkyKick will use the additional funding to accelerate product development, and expand sales and marketing to support the global demand for its cloud management platform.

This investment round was led by its current base of investors including former Qwiki COO Navin Thukkaram, Top 20 Angel Investor Tim Ferriss, and several strategic private equity investors. SkyKick has also added notable new investors including Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the former German Federal Minister of Defense, and former German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology.

'SkyKick has rapidly emerged as the market leader in the Office 365 space by proving it can solve a billion dollar problem -- moving businesses from on-premise email to the cloud,' said Thukkaram. 'With today's strategic investment, we are accelerating SkyKick's growth trajectory to help them solve a multi-billion dollar opportunity; giving IT partners one platform to manage businesses' entire cloud presence.'

Cloud Management Details

SkyKick's new line of products include:

Cloud Backup -- Cloud-to-cloud backup of a businesses' Office 365, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business and Exchange data with unlimited storage and 1-click restore. Cloud data loss and business continuity can be a real issue for many customers. In fact, a recent study by IT Policy Compliance Group shows that 75 percent of data loss is due to human error and recovering data can take partners an average of six hours per data loss incident. SkyKick's backup solution provides insurance against data loss. Built on a powerful platform with high levels of encryption and security, Cloud Backup takes a minute to set up, with no software to install, and customer data can be backed up for as long as required.
Cloud Manager -- Managing multiple cloud applications for multiple customers can be complicated and time consuming. SkyKick's new Cloud Manager enables solution providers to centrally and efficiently manage their customers' cloud applications, users and groups across multiple services -- starting with Office 365 and Dropbox -- all within a single interface.

Cloud Migration -- Launched in 2013, SkyKick's Migration Suites have helped thousands of partners move their customers to Office 365. The company created the technology to address the wide variety of migration scenarios that exist across the SMB (1-250 employee) and Enterprise (250+ employee) landscapes. SkyKick's migration suites are the only way that IT consultants, system integrators, managed service providers, value-added resellers and other IT partners can automate an entire Office 365 migration project from initial sales to project completion.

SkyKick's Cloud Migration Suites are currently available in all international markets. Cloud Backup and Cloud Manager are currently available in the U.S.

About SkyKick

SkyKick is a global provider of cloud management software for IT solution providers. Its products are designed to help build successful cloud businesses by making it easy and efficient for IT providers to migrate, backup and manage their customers in the cloud. Over 5,000 partners worldwide use SkyKick's products to accelerate their cloud business, and the company has won numerous awards including being named a Microsoft Partner of the Year and a Red Herring Top 100 North America winner. SkyKick is headquartered in Seattle. For more information visit www.skykick.com.