Salesforce acquires data center analytics startup Coolan
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
Coolan spent barely eighteen months out of the gate before this exit: the startup was founded by former Facebook employees and launched in private beta in February 2015, selling predictive analytics aimed at data center operations. Salesforce picked it up while the product was still pre-general-availability — closer to a talent-and-technology tuck-in than a revenue acquisition.
The timing matters because it slots into a dense 2016 stretch of small Salesforce buys on the same theme: PredictionIO for open-source machine learning in February, BeyondCore for analytics in August. Coolan adds the infrastructure-efficiency layer to what was otherwise a software-side analytics spree.
First-order effects
- Coolan's ex-Facebook founding team and its private-beta data center analytics technology move inside Salesforce, whose own infrastructure operations become the first customer.
Second-order effects
- The deal completes a three-acquisition arc across 2016 — PredictionIO, Coolan, then BeyondCore — signaling that Salesforce was deliberately assembling machine learning and analytics capability through tuck-ins rather than one large platform purchase.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, large SaaS operators stop buying data center tooling from vendors and absorb hyperscale-style operational analytics in-house, since infrastructure efficiency becomes a margin lever they treat as proprietary.
The trend: Mid-2010s SaaS leaders like Salesforce built their machine learning stacks through rapid serial tuck-in acquisitions rather than organic development.