dotCloud Platform as a Service has been acquired by cloudControl, a German Platform as a Service vendor that is expanding its presence in the U.S. market. Under the terms of the agreement, dotCloud will retain its name as well as the functionality of its existing PaaS technology in the near future. In Q4 of this year, cloudControl plans to integrate its PaaS technology with dotCloud such that customers can access a preview version of a new version of dotCloud in conjunction with the original platform. Starting in Q1 of 2015, cloudControl anticipates migrating customers to the newly enhanced “next generation” dotCloud PaaS platform so that by Q2 of 2015, all existing dotCloud customers will have transitioned to the new version. dotCloud’s acquisition by cloudControl promises to inject an infusion of engineering and marketing vision into a platform that had been ailing ever since dotCloud pivoted on its PaaS strategy by transforming itself into Docker in 2013.
Although dotCloud started with the promise specific to a polyglot PaaS in 2010, the company failed to grow as planned and pursued an alternative business model by open sourcing the container technology built for dotCloud that is now known as Docker. While Docker continued to own dotCloud’s technology, the dotCloud platform itself languished in the wake of the company’s incorporation as Docker. As such, dotCloud’s acquisition by cloudControl promises to bring a fresh wave of innovation and commitment to a platform that promised much in the early years of its existence, even though it failed to deliver. The bottom line is that cloudControl’s acquisition of dotCloud means that the U.S. platform as a service space should now expect a revitalized entrant to the polyglot PaaS space that is owned by a company with ample experience in the PaaS space already. That said, cloudControl will have its work cut out for itself in order to render dotCloud competitive in comparison to PaaS vendors such as ActiveState and Apprenda, for starters.
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