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        Espresso AI, a startup focused on optimizing cloud compute costs, has emerged from stealth with USD 11 million in pre-seed and seed funding. The funding rounds were led by Daniel Gross, Nat Friedman, and Matt Turck from FirstMark.
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        The fresh funds will accelerate product development and strengthen its go-to-market strategies.&nbsp;
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        Espresso AI automates code optimization using LLMs and ML, aiming to reduce cloud compute costs by up to 80%. It currently analyzes and optimizes queries for 
        <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/241548">
          Snowflake
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        , a leading cloud data warehousing platform, and plans to expand its service to other SQL data warehouses.
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    <a href="https://venturebeat.com/ai/espresso-ai-emerges-from-stealth-with-11m-to-tackle-the-cloud-cost-crisis/">
      VentureBeat
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Cloud Optimization Tools

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 <p>Espresso AI, a startup that aims to optimize cloud computing costs, has successfully secured USD 11 million in pre-seed and seed funding. Major contributors to the funding rounds include Daniel Gross, Nat Friedman, and Matt Turck from FirstMark.</p>
 <p>The startup plans to utilize these newly acquired funds to expedite product development and bolster its go-to-market strategies.&nbsp;</p>
 <p>Specializing in automating code optimization using Low Level Virtual Machines (LLVMs) and Machine Learning (ML), Espresso AI strives to decrease cloud compute costs by a significant margin of up to 80%. As of now, the company analyzes and optimizes queries for  <a href="https://sp-edge.com/companies/241548"> Snowflake </a>, a top-tier platform for cloud data warehousing, and has future plans of expanding its repertoire of services to other SQL data warehouses.</p>
 
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Espresso AI emerges from stealth with USD 11 million in funding

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

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 <p>CloudBolt Software, a leader in cloud automation and orchestration, has announced a partnership with StormForge, a platform specializing in managing Kubernetes resources. The collaboration aims to enhance IT teams' ability to cut Kubernetes costs by leveraging top-tier FInOps tactics.</p>
 <p>As part of this partnership, StormForge's machine-learning algorithms will be incorporated into CloudBolt's FinOps solutions. This integration will help in optimizing Kubernetes clusters and provide real-time cost allocations. The end goal of this collaboration is to simplify the process for IT teams to monitor Kubernetes costs along with other IT platforms expenses, with the use of tools that promote proactive issue management.</p></div>

CloudBolt partners with StormForge to optimize Kubernetes costs

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 <p>Polar Signals, a startup that aims to improve code efficiency and reduce cloud costs for businesses, recently raised USD 6.8 million in a seed funding round. Significant contributions were made by Alphabet’s GV, Spark Capital, Lightspeed, among others.</p>
 <p>The company plans to use this investment to spur its growth, primarily by expanding its team substantially. This expansion is aimed at serving its increasing customer base more promptly and effectively.</p>
 <p>Founded in 2020, Polar Signals specializes in continuous profiling, a method that involves robust monitoring of resource consumption to enhance code efficiency and minimize cloud costs for companies. Since its inception in October, the startup has gained over a dozen reputable customers, indicating a strong potential for further growth and expansion.</p>
 
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Polar Signals raises USD 6.8 million in seed funding

ANALYST_QUICK_TAKE

INCUMBENTS_PRESENT

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 <p>IT insights provider, Flexera, has acquired Snow Software, a company that optimizes technology values and maximizes return on tech investments. Snow Software is particularly known for its focus on providing actionable insights in IT asset management, software as a service management, and financial operations.</p>
 <p>Through this acquisition, Flexera plans to strengthen and enhance both its own and Snow's solutions. The overall objective is to help organizations in managing their technology-related expenses effectively while minimizing risks. By offering a comprehensive viewpoint across different technology platforms, the combined entity aims to tackle escalating costs and emerging risks in the changing technology environment. Furthermore, the acquisition will also contribute to expanding the customer base and partner relationships, thereby delivering more effective solutions.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
</b> Flexera has been following a growth strategy focused on acquisitions to expand its product range, increase its market presence, and improve its technological abilities. This recent acquisition marks Flexera's first move since the Covid-19 pandemic. From 2015 to 2020, the company acquired a total of eight companies, such as RightScale in 2018, Revulytics in 2020, RISC Networks in 2019, and Brainwaregroup in 2018.</p>

Flexera acquires Snow Software; aims to enhance hybrid IT estate visibility

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 <p>Nerdio, a cloud-based technology company providing a management platform for virtual desktops, has integrated AI into its products to enhance management and cost optimization of virtual and physical desktops, applications, and Azure infrastructure.</p>
 <p>The company is shifting infrastructure management from a reactive to a predictive model with the infusion of AI. Furthermore, AI assistants known as GenAI are being launched to assist IT administrators in tasks such as scripted action generation, report creation, data analysis, and providing intuitive guidance across the product interface.</p>
 <p>These advancements in AI aim to overcome application storage and delivery challenges for MSPs (managed service providers) and enterprises by offering a unified approach to manage application delivery and updates across physical devices and virtual desktops.</p>
 
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:<br>
 </b> Cloud technology companies increasingly incorporate AI and GenAI enhancements into their product offerings. Recently, RedHat and Singlestore have integrated GenAI for cloud automation, while LogicMonitor, Docker, and GitLab have developed AI-based support features for users. To learn more about AI-based integrations by cloud companies, please refer to our <a href="https:<br>
//sp-edge.com/insights/26132"> Cloud Tech (Q4 2023) </a> report.</p>

Nerdio introduces AI enhancements to Azure Cloud Management suite

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<p>Kubecost, a Kubernetes cloud expenditures management platform, has introduced its new version, Kubecost 2.0, aimed at better monitoring and optimizing Kubernetes cloud costs, especially for large-scale enterprises and complex cloud environments. The upgraded features include advanced network monitoring, Collections, Kubecost Actions, cost forecasting, anomaly detection, and enhanced real-time cost estimation. These tools improve network expense visibility, offer unified reporting, automate optimization workflows, help in budget planning, send alerts on unusual expenditures, and take resource discounts into account for accurate budgeting.</p>
</div> <p><b>Analyst QuickTake:</b> <a href="https://www.finops.org/introduction/what-is-finops/"> FinOps </a> is becoming essential in managing costs in Kubernetes environments, where increased complexity and microservices adoption make cost allocation challenging. Organizations are turning to specialized monitoring tools such as Kubecost and implementing chargeback models for accountability, focusing on continuous improvement and automation to optimize containerized resource usage and spending.</p>

Kubecost launches Kubecost 2.0 for enhanced Kubernetes spend management

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 <p>Harness, a software delivery platform, acquired continuous delivery platform company, Armory, for USD 7 million. Established in 2016, Armory attracted over USD 82 million in funding and developed a substantial customer base.</p>
 <p>Following the acquisition, Harness plans to retain several of Armory's employees and will transition its customers to maintain the continuity of relationships and services. It also plans to incorporate some of Armory's technology into its products.</p>
 
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Harness acquires Armory for USD 7 million

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<p>OpenTofu, a version of the automation platform Terraform, has completed four months of development and has now officially been launched. The project, which was overseen by the Linux Foundation, involved over 60 engineers and was backed by 150 companies. Using the same source code as Terraform, OpenTofu 1.6 brings numerous improvements, a highlight being a quicker and more efficient replacement for Terraform Registry. OpenTofu simplifies application secrets, enables automatic provisioning of cloud infrastructure, resolves configuration problems, and manages encryption keys. </p>
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OpenTofu released for general availability

The FinOps Foundation, part of The Linux Foundation, has released FOCUS version 1.0-preview. This open specification tool aims to simplify the understanding of cloud cost and usage. Major cloud providers AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and Oracle Cloud have contributed to this initiative. FOCUS brings clarity to cloud spending and value reporting by unifying the language and schema for cost and usage data. It fosters collaboration among cloud service providers, FinOps vendors, and FinOps enterprises, while aligning with standard operating procedures of big cloud spender organizations.

FinOps Foundation launches FOCUS 1.0 to simplify cloud usage

DISRUPTOR_PRESENT

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 <ul>
  <li><p>CAST AI, a company specializing in IT infrastructure management, has introduced a new tool called Automated Workload Rightsizing at the Kubecon + CloudNativeCon conference. This tool aims to optimize Kubernetes workloads for better efficiency and cost management.</p></li>
  <li><p>The Automated Workload Rightsizing tool includes two key features: monitoring resource consumption to automatically resize cloud-native applications and reallocating resources to other applications.</p></li>
  <li><p>Furthermore, CAST AI has also announced the PrecisionPack scheduler, which uses a bin-packing algorithm to ensure pods run on specific nodes, improving availability. These services can be used alongside the company's Autoscaler, Spot Instance Management, and Cost Reporting Suite tools.</p></li>
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All Updates

Espresso AI emerges from stealth with USD 11 million in funding

CloudBolt partners with StormForge to optimize Kubernetes costs

Polar Signals raises USD 6.8 million in seed funding

Flexera acquires Snow Software; aims to enhance hybrid IT estate visibility

Nerdio introduces AI enhancements to Azure Cloud Management suite

Kubecost launches Kubecost 2.0 for enhanced Kubernetes spend management

Harness acquires Armory for USD 7 million

OpenTofu released for general availability

FinOps Foundation launches FOCUS 1.0 to simplify cloud usage

CAST AI launches tools to optimize Kubernetes clusters

Cloud Optimization Tools

Espresso AI emerges from stealth with USD 11 million in funding

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