RightScale to take over Santa Barbara tech incubator

RightScale makes software that lets companies use remote servers for big computing tasks. It has raised $47.2 million in venture capital since it was incorporated in 2007.
CEO Michael Crandell told the Business Times that RightScale has expanded to employ about 150 people worldwide, with three-quarters of those workers located in Santa Barbara. He said RightScale’s founders decided to build the company on the South Coast because of access to high-quality experts in cloud computing, the practice of using faraway computers to handle storage and data crunching over Internet lines.

“Santa Barbara is ideal,” Crandell told the Business Times. “It’s become one of the leading centers for cloud computing worldwide.”

RightScale is moving from its current headquarters on Canon Perdido Street.

The deal is the largest office lease in downtown Santa Barbara in six years, according to Hayes Commercial Group, which represented RightScale in the transaction.

The RightScale move will displace the small businesses housed at the Gutierrez location, which has served as a technology incubator space where young companies can rent as little as a cubicle for a low price. Officials at SIMA Management Corp., which runs the incubator, were not immediately available for comment.