Xcedex. Results Driven Technology.

by Caleb Stevens Staff writer

Nancy Kuehn | Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
Xcedex CEO and President Chris Taylor at a company meeting. Xcedex expects revenue of $5+ million, up from $3.7 million in 2008.

Chris Taylor is no weatherman, but he knows the forecast for his business: It’s cloudy.

Cloudy as in cloud computing; Taylor is co-founder, president and CEO of Xcedex Inc., a tech firm that is shifting its focus to software “virtualization” and cloud computing, which shifts certain data-management and application tasks to the Web.

Xcedex recently sold off the consulting end of the company to shift all resources on its new focus and is moving from a 2,000-square-foot office in Wayzata to a 6,000-square-foot office in the 800 block of Washington Avenue. It’s also raising capital to expand from strictly virtualization into cloud computing and other state-of-the-art technologies

Xcedex provides software that does virtualization planning, design and deployment. “Virtualization” is basically the process of dividing server resources so it runs more efficiently. For example, Xcedex recently implemented its software for a large information services company and decreased the amount of physical servers they use from 4,000 down to 200.

Xcedex past work also includes a deal with an online retail company to reduce its physical server size from 400 down to three. The business savings that virtualization offers (both in energy and physical space) is one of the reasons Taylor says the technology is here to stay.

“Virtualization has a significant impact on the bottom line.” Taylor said. “[Clients] understand the impact and payback, they can’t deploy it fast enough.”

Cloud computing builds on virtualization to move data onto the Web in such a way that it doesn’t matter where the user is or what hardware they’re using to access it. A simple example is an application such as Google’s Gmail, but it can get much more advanced. Programmers could use cloud technology to borrow vast amounts of data for a simulation, then return it when the simulation is over.

“Today, we focus on virtualization planning,” Taylor said. “Our next initiative is virtual desktop (later in 2009) and the next will be cloud computing (sometime in 2010).”

Taylor and Xcedex are looking to gain an edge on the competition through their unique approach to virtualization. Xcedex’s X_Factor planning software does not require a client installation and runs on a computer through the firm’s Web site. Taylor said he hasn’t seen any other infrastructure analysis firms deploying products in that way.

“We have completely taken our software to the next level with the SaaS model,” Taylor said. “No matter where you are in the world, if you have an Internet connection, you can use our software.”

The company is expecting revenue between $5 million and $6 million for this year, up from around $3.7 million last year. That growth will lead Xcedex from the suburbs to downtown Minneapolis.

“We’re sharing desks with each other,” Taylor said. “It’s time to get to a larger location and get that look and feel of a software company.”
Xcedex Inc.
City: Wayzata
Founder, CEO and president: Chris Taylor
Business: Technology
Employees: 17
2008 Revenue: About $3.7 million
Web: xcedex.com