Create a unified cloud with vCider

Structure LaunchPad startup vCider disguises packets like I disguise zucchini in my four-year-old’s chocolate muffins. Except vCider does it to help companies bridge between different cloud providers while providing a bit less latency and more security that one would with a virtual router.

VCider aims to help companies span clouds while keeping their security and compliance intact by installing software on a virtual machine instance in a cloud and then creating a mesh-like Layer 2 network that the administrator can control. But because it’s in an instance running at Layer 3 of the network, it’s akin to hiding Layer 2 packets inside the Layer 3 tunnels in order to allow for greater control of the network without adding a lot of latency. Using such clients inside each instance is becoming a more common practice as companies CloudPassage also experiment with that — only for security rather than bridging a network.

There are other companies such as Vyatta offering similar services to try to present a unified network view, but they use virtual routers that have their own limitations — namely greater latency and they can introduce a single point of failure.

VCider, which was founded in the fall of 2010, had raised a seed round of about $500,000 from undisclosed investors, according to CEO Chris Marino. It is looking for a Series A funding.