Cycle Computing
Cycle Computing developed CycleCloud, an HPC orchestration platform for provisioning cloud compute infrastructure and supporting major job schedulers. The product now operates as Azure CycleCloud within Microsoft following acquisition, distributed via Azure Marketplace to HPC administrators and enterprise researchers.
- Company typePublic
- Founded2005
- HeadquartersStamford, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Cycle Computing does
Cycle Computing, founded in 2005 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, was a software developer specializing in cloud High Performance Computing (HPC) orchestration and data workflows. Its flagship product, originally branded CycleCloud, provided enterprise customers with the ability to provision HPC infrastructure on cloud platforms, deploy familiar HPC job schedulers (including Slurm, PBS Professional, OpenPBS, LSF, HPC Pack, and Grid Engine), automatically size compute resources to job requirements, and mount configured file systems to cluster nodes. The company supported a Bring Your Own Scheduler option for organizations with custom auto-scaling requirements.
Cycle Computing was acquired by Microsoft, and the product was re-platformed as Azure CycleCloud, now maintained by a Microsoft internal team and distributed exclusively through the Microsoft Azure Marketplace under the cloud solutions and AI apps category. The product carries a 4.1 rating across 15 reviews on the marketplace. The revenue model shifted to usage-based Azure consumption, where customers pay for the underlying Azure compute, storage, and networking resources consumed by their HPC clusters rather than a separate software license. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed.
The company's customer segmentation is horizontal, targeting HPC administrators and researchers across enterprise organizations, with use cases spanning computational research, large-scale data processing, and enterprise HPC deployments. Cycle Computing operated with 11–50 employees and received approximately $1M in disclosed equity funding in 2016 alongside participation in Microsoft Accelerator Seattle. The current Azure CycleCloud offering competes as an Azure-native alternative to hyperscaler-agnostic HPC orchestration tools, with its primary differentiation being deep integration with Azure infrastructure and broad out-of-the-box scheduler compatibility.
Cycle Computing firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cycle Computing
- Legal name
- Microsoft Corporation
- Website
- https://cyclecomputing.com
- Company type
- Public
- Founded year
- 2005
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Cycle Computing developed CycleCloud, an HPC orchestration platform for provisioning cloud compute infrastructure and supporting major job schedulers. The product now operates as Azure CycleCloud within Microsoft following acquisition, distributed via Azure Marketplace to HPC administrators and enterprise researchers.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cycle Computing industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cloud HPC Orchestration
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518), Computer Facilities Management Services (541513)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images) (HDACAOAH)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Compute Resource Management & Scheduling (Cluster/Workload Managers) (HDABADAK), HPC-as-a-Product / On-Prem Managed HPC (Integrated Hardware + Ops) (HDACAOAK)
Keywords
Where Cycle Computing is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Stamford
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Cycle Computing business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Azure Consumption: Revenue is generated through Azure cloud consumption when customers provision and use HPC infrastructure through Azure CycleCloud. Customers pay for the underlying Azure compute, storage, and networking resources consumed by their HPC clusters.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels1 record
Cycle Computing product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cycle Computing developed Azure CycleCloud, a software platform for orchestrating and managing High Performance Computing (HPC) environments on Microsoft Azure. The product provisions HPC infrastructure, deploys familiar HPC schedulers (Slurm, PBS Professional, OpenPBS, LSF, HPC Pack, Grid Engine) out of the box, automatically sizes infrastructure to run jobs efficiently at any scale, and supports provisioning and mounting of file systems to compute cluster nodes. Customers may also bring their own scheduler for custom auto-scaling support.
Product overview
Cycle Computing's product is Azure CycleCloud, a unified HPC orchestration and management platform. The core offering is Azure CycleCloud itself, which provides infrastructure provisioning for HPC systems, deployment of familiar HPC schedulers, automatic infrastructure sizing for job execution at any scale, and the ability to create and mount different file systems to compute cluster nodes. The product supports multiple built-in schedulers including Slurm, PBS Professional, OpenPBS, LSF, HPC Pack, and Grid Engine, with support for bringing custom schedulers for auto-scaling.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Azure CycleCloud An enterprise-friendly tool for orchestrating and managing High Performance Computing (HPC) environments on Microsoft Azure. Enables users to provision HPC infrastructure, deploy familiar HPC schedulers (Slurm, PBS Professional, OpenPBS, LSF, HPC Pack, Grid Engine), automatically size infrastructure to run jobs efficiently at any scale, and create/mount file systems to compute cluster nodes. Customers may also bring their own scheduler for auto-scaling support. Targeted at HPC administrators, researchers, engineers, and scientists running enterprise HPC workloads on Azure.
Quantifiable outcome
- Run HPC jobs efficiently at any scale through automatic infrastructure sizing
Companies that use Cycle Computing
Customer profileSegments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Cycle Computing technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
Feature3 records
Cycle Computing partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators1 record
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Cycle Computing competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- AWS ParallelCluster: AWS's open-source HPC cluster orchestration tool that provisions and manages HPC environments on AWS, supporting Slurm and other schedulers. Direct functional competitor to Azure CycleCloud in the cloud HPC orchestration category.
- Rescale: Cloud HPC platform that orchestrates engineering and scientific simulations across multiple cloud providers, supporting a broad scheduler and solver ecosystem. Comparable to CycleCloud as a multi-cloud HPC orchestration SaaS, though Rescale operates cloud-agnostically.
- Google Cloud HPC Toolkit: Google Cloud's open-source toolkit for deploying HPC environments (including Slurm clusters) on GCP. Directly comparable cloud-provider-native HPC orchestrator competing for the same customer segment on a different hyperscaler.
Broad incumbents
- AWS Batch: AWS's fully managed batch computing service for running HPC and parallel jobs at scale on AWS infrastructure. Competes with CycleCloud as an alternative AWS-native orchestration layer, with broader positioning across batch and HPC workloads.
- Altair PBS Works: Commercial HPC workload manager and orchestration suite (PBS Professional) that CycleCloud integrates with out of the box. Competes as a holistic HPC management platform rather than a cloud-specific orchestration layer.
- IBM Spectrum LSF: IBM's enterprise HPC workload management platform, one of the major schedulers CycleCloud supports. Competes as an on-prem enterprise HPC orchestration stack with broader scheduling capabilities than cloud-focused tools.
- Azure Batch: Microsoft's first-party Azure service for running large-scale parallel and HPC workloads. Internal Azure counterpart to CycleCloud that competes for the same Microsoft customer base, potentially limiting CycleCloud's strategic priority within Microsoft.
- Nimbix (HPE): HPE's cloud HPC service offering acquired from Nimbix, providing managed HPC environments across cloud and on-prem. Comparable as a managed HPC orchestration platform targeting enterprise R&D customers.
Emerging players
- SchedMD (Slurm): Primary commercial sponsor and developer of the open-source Slurm workload manager that CycleCloud supports. Indirect competitor as Slurm itself can be deployed and orchestrated via cloud-native tools without a dedicated platform layer like CycleCloud.
- UberCloud: Cloud HPC marketplace and orchestration service targeting engineering CAE and scientific workloads across cloud providers. Niche competitor with comparable cloud HPC orchestration value proposition but smaller scale.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Cycle Computing social profiles
Digital presenceCycle Computing financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cycle Computing leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Cycle Computing funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cycle Computing M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cycle Computing
What does Cycle Computing do?
Cycle Computing developed Azure CycleCloud, a software platform for orchestrating and managing High Performance Computing (HPC) environments on Microsoft Azure. The product provisions HPC infrastructure, deploys familiar HPC schedulers (Slurm, PBS Professional, OpenPBS, LSF, HPC Pack, Grid Engine) out of the box, automatically sizes infrastructure to run jobs efficiently at any scale, and supports provisioning and mounting of file systems to compute cluster nodes. Customers may also bring their own scheduler for custom auto-scaling support.
Is Cycle Computing a public or private company?
Cycle Computing is a public company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Cycle Computing founded?
Cycle Computing was founded in 2005. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Cycle Computing based?
Cycle Computing is headquartered in Stamford, United States, in the North America region.
How does Cycle Computing make money?
One revenue line is on record: azure Consumption.
Who are Cycle Computing's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are AWS ParallelCluster, Rescale and Google Cloud HPC Toolkit. Broad incumbents are AWS Batch, Altair PBS Works, IBM Spectrum LSF, Azure Batch and Nimbix (HPE). Emerging players are SchedMD (Slurm) and UberCloud.
Does Cycle Computing have an API?
No public API is recorded for Cycle Computing.
What industry is Cycle Computing in?
Cycle Computing's product category is Cloud HPC Orchestration. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDACAOAH, HPC System Software & Resource Management (Schedulers, MPI, OS Images), with a secondary code of HDABADAK, Compute Resource Management & Scheduling (Cluster/Workload Managers). Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.