InterCloud Systems Inc. (ICLD)

[umyeahright]

ICLD DD 2500+ OpenStack Jobs on LinkedIn. InterCloud provides Juniper Contrail for SDN for OpenStack. Take a look at the job postings for how hot this market is. OpenStack is hot, hot, hot!

If you haven't heard of OpenStack, it's the most popular collection of open source cloud computing components that everyone has settled on, similar to how "Linux" is a collection of GNU programs that power the kernel and operating system. InterCloud focuses on the SDN aspect of empowering OpenStack cloud builders, and I can tell you from experience that this is where the best of the best are changing the world.

SDN means "software defined networking". NFV means "network function virtualization". You can go to any network equipment vendor's site and find references everywhere. The customers are cloud (AWS, Rackspace et. all), Tier 1 carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Level(3), Tier 2 (probably InterCloud's sweet spot), and anyone wanting to run a modern public or private cloud. It's tough for people to set build this themselves, so people use Amazon Web Services (AWS). When someone wants their own cloud (whether public, private, or managed), they turn to companies like InterCloud.

ICLD's 2016 results highlight this:

In 2016, InterCloud’s SDN and NFV related revenue increased from zero in 2015 to almost $5 million in 2016. This market has been slower to adopt than most experts predicted but clearly the virtualization of the network has begun and future opportunities remain robust and exciting for InterCloud. Our team has focused on several highly remarkable use cases in healthcare security and analytics, tier two carrier orchestration and automation, and deep machine learning analytics and automation for IOT applications. Recently, two companies with similar software platforms to InterCloud's have sold for over $100 million each. These events give us even more confidence we are in the right space at the right time. We have streamlined costs but our platform remains robust and the team continues to develop use cases with near term revenue opportunities. We have focused on strategic partnerships to help lower our costs of sales and deliver our solutions into large enterprise customers that already have existing relationships with our brand name partners. I look forward to reporting news around this market during 2017."

In conclusion, Mark Munro, Chairman and CEO stated, "2016 was a solid growth year for InterCloud. Revenue increased, costs lowered and debt was significantly reduced. We look forward to driving efficiencies deeper in 2017 and the continued growth and maturity in the new markets of IOT, SDN and NFV.”

A lot of this should be comprehensively turned into a technical DD sticky with lots of links (when it's not 2AM). I'm sick and tired about the stupid R/S talk. It's like a broken record. I read this for fun (basing my investment strategies on my own technicals and DD), but the narrative is being taken away from the truly unique investment opportunity. The R/S (and 99% of posts) are just a distraction. Don't fall for it, and if you're long, it doesn't matter. The other companies that are similar-ish to InterCloud are already acquired or private (like Mirantis.

One last link - the SDN market is predicted to be huge in the next 1-XX years. There are plenty of estimates. Google 'SDN market size' for some variety, but I think you'll be pleased with the results.