Datarang LLC, a Spokane Valley-based cloud computing company, says it has finalized an agreement to acquire the cloud services clients of Easy Desk LLC, another Spokane cloud service provider. 

Datarang co-founder and CEO Eric Phillips says that with the addition of Easy Desk’s 80 clients, the company now has about 150 clients all together.  

“We have clients all over the country, but the majority are here or have a presence here,” says Phillips. “It’s a fun thing being able to meet everyone and introduce them to our services.”

Easy Desk is still owned by Ralph and Hazel Parkinson. Having recently relocated in pursuit of another business opportunity, the couple contacted Datarang to find a home for the majority of their cloud-based clients. 

Phillips declines to disclose the terms of the transaction, but says the acquired clients represent perhaps 80 percent of Easy Desk’s revenues.

Datarang is owned by Phillips and Chris Rostie, and currently has five full-time employees, along with occasional contractors who assist the company with project-based work. 

Datarang is a technology services provider, offering services such as application hosting, email and Web conferencing, voice services, off-site data backup, file sharing, and application development environments.

Cloud computing, in this context, describes the process through which organizations can have other providers manage their information-technology systems, enabling them to focus more on new ways to grow their business rather than focusing on managing storage or protecting data. 

Datarang has been offering cloud computing services to its clients since its beginnings in 2010. Phillips says it is becoming a more popular option for many businesses.

“Most businesses run a server that contains their QuickBooks program, Microsoft Windows, email, inventory, and other business applications,” he says. “We come in and take that server, move it to our data center, and make its contents available to the client through the Web.” 

 This gives all employees easy access to their company’s data files from any device that can connect to the Internet, including tablets and phones. 

“We do all the routine maintenance, security checks, and data backups for them,” Phillips says. 

All former Easy Desk clients will gradually—over the next two or three months—be migrated to the Datarang platform running out of Datarang’s Keystone data center. That’s what the company calls its main office location, a 900-square-foot space in the Washington Cracker Co. building, at 304 W. Pacific.

The company moved into that space in October and chose to name the location after the area’s old local telephone exchange. It plans to open a second, smaller data center next month in Airway Heights. Phillips says that center, to be named the Geiger data center, will occupy about 500 square feet of floor space, but won’t include office space. 

“With cloud computing services growing, opening this second location is a big deal for us,” he says. “It will give us that much more confidence in providing comprehensive services, ensuring our clients have business continuity.”

Phillips says the company also hopes to provide its cloud-based clients with the latest server update from Microsoft Corp., which is set to come out this fall. 

“There is some really fun, neat stuff coming out with that update that will benefit remote cloud-based services, so we’re excited to roll that out,” he says.