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TWST: May we start with an introduction and a short history?
Mr. Lerner: Sure. We entered the system and network monitoring space via data
center operations. Prior to founding CITTIO, I was a Founder and Chief
Technology Officer at a data center operations company and our business model
was housing and operating computer systems. As part of doing that, we monitored
all the equipment we ran on behalf of our customers. This led us to evaluating
the best vendors in the space. We selected a vendor and spent millions of
dollars trying to configure and set up the software. In the end, we were
extremely frustrated. Our frustration hovered around four points: the technology
expense, the set up complexity, ongoing work to maintain the system, and the
lack of powerful cost-effective solutions available. In 2000, we wound down our
data center operations business and as we looked at the technology space, we
thought the biggest opportunity for us was to build an easy-to-use, well priced
enterprise class system and network monitoring tool. That's what CITTIO has been
doing since 2001. In a short amount of time, CITTIO has been able to deliver
enterprise class system and network monitoring to its over 100 customers
providing them with increased IT productivity and reduced downtime and enabling
customers to generate business value from their IT network. TWST: How do you view the current economic environment and what are the dynamics
driving your business?
Mr. Lerner: I see a lot of pressure on IT departments to reduce costs and the
method by which they are doing that is to reduce complexity. We are seeing data
centers consolidate in addition to IT teams moving away from large, complex and
expensive enterprise applications and moving toward less expensive, simple
models such as software as a service or on-demand technology. CITTIO is very
much part of this trend. As people begin to look at their complex, expensive
networks and data centers and begin to rationalize those, they are moving out
the expensive and complex management and monitoring platforms and bringing in
the lighter weight, easier-to-use systems like our product WatchTower. The other
trend we are seeing is an offshoot of the trend whereby people are trying to
reduce complexity. One of the ways people are reducing complexity is by
outsourcing and focusing on their core business while using managed service
providers to provide operations and ongoing support and maintenance. We are
seeing this quite a bit, in fact 35% of our customers are managed service
providers who are utilizing our software to run it as a service and provide
monitoring and management on behalf of their customers.
Tickers included in this excerpt: PVT
For more information call (212) 952 7433. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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