Salesforce acquired data-center optimization startup Coolan in 2016 to bring its hardware analytics software and engineering team inside the company. Coolan’s technology analyzed infrastructure operations to help improve reliability and efficiency; Salesforce’s stated goal was to use the team to optimize its own infrastructure as it scaled. The deal was not announced as a new Salesforce product for customers.
What Salesforce acquired and when
Salesforce publicly disclosed the acquisition in September 2016 and said it had closed in August. Contemporaneous news coverage reported the deal announcement on July 21, 2016. Financial terms were not disclosed in the coverage. Salesforce’s announcement described Coolan as a company that helped organizations track and analyze infrastructure reliability to increase uptime, improve efficiency, and scale hardware operations.
Coolan’s platform analyzed data about data-center hardware and operations. It was infrastructure software, not a consumer-facing Salesforce application.
Why Salesforce wanted Coolan
Coolan co-founder and CEO Amir Michael gave the clearest explanation of the acquisition’s purpose: “Once the transaction has closed, the Coolan team will help Salesforce optimize its infrastructure as it scales to support customer growth around the world.” Data Center Knowledge’s 2016 coverage also described the platform as a way to identify inefficiencies, inform hardware-buying decisions, and predict component failures, using current operational data alongside historical data gathered from customer facilities.
#1 Best Overall
The acquisition combined analytics software with a team experienced in operating infrastructure at scale. Industry coverage described that experience as relevant to standardizing hardware and automating infrastructure operations.
What Coolan’s analytics could help decide
Data-center operators face questions such as when to retire a server and which power-supply type and configuration best fits their needs. Those decisions depend on a facility’s actual operating conditions and costs; the reports do not establish one universally correct server age or power-supply setup.
Rank #2
- Ideal for Gifting
- Ideal for a bookworm
- Compact for travelling
- Server retirement: weigh purchase costs against operating and capital costs over the server’s useful life.
- Power supplies: evaluate efficiency at the loads servers actually experience and compare that with the configuration in use.
- Reliability: use hardware and operational data to spot patterns that could indicate inefficiency or component failure.
Data Center Knowledge reported one customer example in which Coolan’s analysis found 1,600 servers with overprovisioned power supplies and attributed 300,000 kWh of annual energy waste to the issue. That is a single reported case, not a typical result or a guaranteed savings figure. The report gives the example and its context.
Why the team’s background mattered
Michael had worked as a hardware engineer at Google and Facebook and helped co-found the Open Compute Project (OCP), which focuses on open, efficient, and scalable hardware. He said he would continue his OCP work after joining Salesforce: “I will continue my work with the Open Compute Project (OCP) to further its mission of making hardware open, efficient and scalable.” Salesforce’s announcement included his statement.
PC Slower Than It Used to Be?
A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Crashes, No Sound, or Screen Glitches?
Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteHow this fit Salesforce’s infrastructure strategy
In 2016, Salesforce was moving toward AWS as a preferred public-cloud infrastructure provider for some international deployments while continuing to invest in or rely on its own data centers. The Coolan acquisition should therefore be understood as an effort to improve Salesforce’s infrastructure capabilities, not as evidence that it was abandoning its own data centers. Contemporaneous reporting on the AWS plans described that shift in the context of international expansion.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the public reports did not establish
Contemporaneous coverage did not disclose the purchase price. It also did not establish whether Salesforce later kept Coolan’s platform available to outside customers, commercialized it, or changed its status. PCWorld noted that Michael discussed internal use without saying whether the platform would remain available as a product. PCWorld’s 2016 report documents that uncertainty; it is not evidence of a later shutdown, rebrand, or commercial launch.
Quick Recap
Best Value
- It can be a gift option
- Comes with secure packaging
- Helpful in various ways
Rank #4
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
