2012 Emerging Vendors: The List

CRN's 2012 Emerging Vendors list includes companies from every technology segment, having been established in 2006 or later, and have a strategy to leverage the channel to go to market.

It takes a certain chutzpah to start up a business these days. Many would say the cards are stacked against entrepreneurs. As established businesses are getting pounded in the flat economy, it's hard to see how any vendor could emerge successfully.

But they do.

Following is CRN's list of Emerging Vendors for 2012, and, at 160 companies, it's a substantial accounting. With unemployment hovering at 8.2 percent, job cuts continuing and businesses on hiring "hiatus," it seems more than a bit ironic. It may just be that the economy's dire straits is prompting the entrepreneurial "giddy-up." When times get tough, pink slips follow--but those with drive, imagination and an understanding of their marketplace, begin again.

CRN's Emerging Vendors know the value of good channel partnerships as well. Partnering with the right VAR can open up doors in a way that no amount of marketing could. A solution provider catering to the health care segment, for example, can place vendor products in myriad applications. That's why solid channel commitment is one of the few requirements for the listing.

This list includes vendors from different technology segments. Each must have been established or have undergone a major transformation in 2006 or later, and have a strategy to leverage the channel to go to market. They are unique because each offers its own perspective to technology.

What's important to these emerging vendors' prospective customers--and how to engineer such solutions--differs from vendor to vendor. Some of these youngsters are already making a mark in the technology arena.

Partly responsible for their success is the realization by large companies that the technologies offered by such emerging vendors are not simply "new," but, rather, effective in meeting business objectives. Cloud computing solutions offer cost efficiency, and mobile business apps can help expand a customer base, for example. It's a lesson that some large, struggling companies are slowly recognizing--emerging vendors can help big businesses get even bigger.

3CX London, U.K. Sector: VoIP Provides an open standard unified communications platform for Windows that works with standard SIP phones and replaces a proprietary PBX.

3X Systems Columbus, OH Sector: Storage Builds private cloud back-up solutions and disaster recovery appliances.

AccelOps Santa Clara, CA Sector: Cloud Automatically associates IP addresses to machine names, addresses, switch VLAN IDs, logged-on user names and directory objects.

Acolyst Washington, DC Sector: Services Offers a custom design data process management application.

Actian Redwood City, CA Sector: Software Delivers a cloud development platform for building lightweight consumer-style apps that automate business actions triggered by realtime changes in data.

Actifio Waltham, MA Sector: Storage Actifio VDP offers Virtual Data Management for data protection, disaster recovery, business continuity, test and development, compliance and analytics.

Aerohive Networks Sunnyvale, CA Sector: Networking The enterprise network architecture supports identity-based wireless or wired access and enables delivery of mission-critical applications to any user.

Akiban Technologies Boston, MA Sector: Virtualization Provides cloud-scale database virtualization solutions, including include Akiban Orthogonal Architecture, for the open-source community.

AlertEnterprise Fremont, CA Sector: Security Integrates physical access control systems and logical systems to deliver realtime global control, security and enforcement of governing policies, practices and regulations.

Alpine Data Labs San Mateo, CA Sector: Software Helps customers uncover the predictive analytic power of data.

AnyPresence Sterling, VA Sector: Mobility An enterprise-class, cloud-based mobile platform that reduces the cost and complexity of multidevice application development, deployment and maintenance.

Appcelerator Mountain View, CA Sector: Software Appcelerator Titanium, is a mobile cloud platform that enables fully native, cross-platform mobile app and HTML5 web development, from a single codebase.

AppNeta Boston, MA Sector: Networking Sells remote performance- management solutions for IT administrators and IT services providers.

Appthority San Francisco, CA Sector: Security Helps the enterprise identify and manage the risks hidden in mobile apps.

Aryaka Milpitas, CA Sector: Networking Offers a cloud-based WAN optimization and application acceleration platform, delivered as a service.

Auraya Systems Nashua, NH Sector: Security Developer of the ArmorVox Speaker Identity System,a voice-driven security solution for voice biometrics systems integrators.

Avenda Systems Santa Clara, CA Sector: Security Offers a multifunction platform for network access control and security.

Axcient Mountain View, CA Sector: Cloud Offers MSPs a data-backup, disaster-recovery and business continuity platform for SMB customers.

BetterCloud Nashua, NH Sector: Security Deploys enterprise-class management and security tools specifically built to integrate with Google Apps domains.

Big Switch Networks Palo Alto, CA Sector: Networking Implements virtualization solutions for enterprise networks.

Bizroof San Francisco, CA Sector: Software Builds simple-to-use web-based applications for small and midsize businesses.

BlazeMeter Tel Aviv, Israel Sector: Cloud A JMeter-compatible, self-service load-testing cloud.

Blue Jeans Network Mountain View, CA Sector: Networking Its cloud-based conferencing service enables people to connect anywhere from virtually any device.

Boundary San Francisco, CA Sector: Cloud Provides a realtime, SaaS-based solution for high-volume, high-resolution monitoring of cloud environments.

BridgeStor Poway, CA Sector: Storage Advanced data reduction primary and backup storage appliances for Microsoft Windows applications.

Centrix Software Framingham, MA Sector: Software Products bridge the gap between existing static IT asset-management tools and wider application-delivery platforms.

CharTec Bakersfield, CA Sector: Services Specializes in accelerated MSP training and giving solution providers the tools to make their MS offerings unique.

CipherCloud San Jose, CA Sector: Cloud Storage Protects enterprise data inside and outside the cloud with full visibility and control.

Circonus Columbia, MD Sector: SaaS Provides a SaaS solution for collecting, trending and alerting on key metrics for online businesses.

ClearCenter Orem, UT Sector: Server, Network & Gateway Hardware and Software ClearCenter provides a ClearOS-based network, gateway, and server Hybrid IT platform for service providers. ClearCenter offers both software and hardware appliance products.

ClearSlide San Francisco, CA Sector: Software A fully web-based sales communications platform designed for the communication needs of sales teams.

CloudAlly London, U.K. Sector: Storage Provides automated daily backups of leading online services.

CloudBees Woburn, MA Sector: PaaS DEV@cloud features the first Hudson cloud service; it will continue to be built out into a complete development, build, test, staging and production environment for any cloud infrastructure.

Cloudera Palo Alto, CA Sector: Cloud Offers Apache Hadoop-based software and services.

CompleteXRM Salt Lake City, UT Sector: Software Provides enterprise 2.0 CRM solutions for SMBs, built on its CxRM (Complete Dynamic Relationship Management) Foundation.

Configero Duluth, GA Sector: Cloud Professional services organization focused on cloud computing, SaaS and business transformation solutions.

Covertix Even Yehuda, Israel Sector: Security SmartCipher, is a file-level information rights management app that monitors and secures confidential documents and sensitive data by traveling with the file inside and outside the organization.

CTERA Networks Palo Alto, CA Sector: Storage CTERA's Cloud Attached Storage solution combines on-premises appliances with cloud services to provide an integrated, all-in-one solution for shared storage, data protection and collaboration.

Custora Brooklyn, NY Sector: Cloud SaaS solution advises online retailers which customers are most valuable and suggests how to keep them.

Datameer San Mateo, CA Sector: Software Offers data analytics solutions built on Apache Hadoop designed to help business users access, analyze and use large amounts of data.

Delphix Menlo Park, CA Sector: Virtualization Delphix virtualizes databases. Delphix software replaces physical copies with virtual databases, which operate in one-tenth the space, but maintain full functionality and performance.

DeskCenter USA Long Beach, NY Sector: Software DeskCenter combines 20 modules or apps into one comprehensive management platform that administers all physical and virtual desktops, servers and applications in a network.

Deskera Sunnyvale, CA Sector: Software An on-demand, integrated business management software suite for midmarket enterprises.

Desktone Lexington, MA Sector: Virtualization Its Virtual-D Platform integrates all required technologies into a single, automated, self-service platform.

Digital Reef Boxborough, MA Sector: Software Helps law firm clients lower costs by providing a scalable and open platform for eDiscovery services and digital information governance applications.

dotCloud San Francisco, CA Sector: Cloud Computing A PaaS solution that lets developers build, deploy and scale applications in the cloud using different language and database stacks without added hardware or software.

eGestalt Technologies Santa Clara, CA Sector: Other SecureGRC is a patent-pending, multiple award-winning, cloud-based SaaS solution that provides PCI, HIPAA/HITECH-based security and compliance management for SMBs.

Embotics Ottawa, ON Sector: Virtualization V-Commander 4.0 accelerates virtualization and private cloud initiatives within midsize and large data centers.

Embrane Santa Clara, CA Sector: Cloud Computing Develops software solution for delivery and management of network services in data centers.

Entando Fort Wayne, IN Sector: Software Entando is reinventing the enterprise portal space by providing a lower-cost, higher-quality enterprise portal.

Evolve IP Wayne, PA Sector: Cloud Evolve IP offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based applications, infrastructure (connectivity, backup and recovery, etc.) and security (firewall, email and web defense, etc.).

Exoprise Waltham, MA Sector: Cloud Computing Exoprise helps companies assess, choose and migrate to cloud platforms through analysis of its existing environment.

EXTENSION Fort Wayne, IN Sector: Software Products leverage an open-source philosophy and build on a strong community of contributors.

eZuce Andover, MA Sector: Software Open enterprise unified communications software.

FastTrack Software AsP Klarup, Denmark Sector: Software FastTrack Scripting Host is a network administrator's software solution to administration headaches via fast, easy and powerful scripts.

FieldSolutions Minnetonka, MN Sector: Services Provider of independent field service technicians to the electronics industry.

FireHost Dallas, TX Sector: Cloud Computing A secure, cloud hosting company with an architecture built for security, scalability and performance.

Fluxx San Francisco, CA Sector: Software Fluxx is a cloud-based platform that unifies business data into one interface in realtime.

GloStream Minneapolis, MN Sector: Software Aims to provide health-care facilities certified electronic medical record and practice management solutions.

GreenBytes Ashaway, RI Sector: Software Offers high-performance, energy-efficient inline data deduplication storage solutions based on Solid State Disk technology.

GridIron Systems Sunnyvale, CA Sector: Storage TurboCharger is a SAN accelerator appliance that speeds up application performance without changes to existing servers, storage or applications.

Hadapt Cambridge, MA Sector: Software An adaptive analytical platform for performing complex analytics on structured and unstructured data, in one cloud-optimized system.

HEROware San Clemente, CA Sector: Virtualization Offers a backup and disaster-recovery solution.

Hortonworks Sunnyvale, CA Sector: Software Accelerates the development and adoption of Apache Hadoop.

Hotlink Santa Clara, CA Sector: Other A heterogeneous data center system management platform for virtual, cloud and physical computing infrastructure.

HStreaming Chicago, IL Sector: Software Provides a scalable, realtime continuous data analytics platform powered by Hadoop.

HyTrust Mountain View, CA Sector: Virtualization Offers IT managers and administrators of virtual infrastructure a centralized, single point of control for hypervisor configuration, compliance and access management.

IceWEB Storage Sterling, VA Sector: Storage Makes high-performance, affordable unified data storage appliances with enterprise storage management capabilities.

Igloo Software Waterloo, ON Sector: Software Develops social software that builds online communities for business.

Impermium Palo Alto, CA Sector: Security A social-web security company that provides a subscription-based service to protect companies against abuse.

independenceIT Allentown, PA Sector: Cloud Helps organizations transition away from traditional IT and realize cost savings and operational advantages of the cloud.

Infor New York, NY Sector: Software Offers a full range of enterprise business software, including CRM, enterprise asset management and ERP.

IO Phoenix, AZ Sector: Data Center Services Creates back-office solution for data entry, data capture, online data entry, document imaging, lettershop, direct mail, call center, document preparation and database management.

Iron Stratus Austin, TX Sector: SaaS Offers enterprise-class management and governance platform for cloud applications, allowing customers to centrally manage on-demand apps, users and data.

iSpecimen Newton, MA Sector: Healthcare Software Builds technology that links electronic medical records and clinical laboratory specimens at partner hospitals.

ITADSecurity Dover, DE Sector: Security Focuses on mitigating the risk of an organizational data breach with the Watchdog application.

Kaminario Newton, MA Sector: Storage Kaminario's K2 flash and DRAM SSD storage solutions deliver extreme performance for accelerating critical business applications.

Karmasphere Cupertino, CA Sector: Software Delivers a big data solution that is deep, unconstrained and accessible for data-driven companies seeking new sources of business opportunity.

KernSafe Technologies Beijing, China Sector: Storage Storage virtualization and data security solutions expand from desktops, to data centers to mobile devices.

KleerMail Boston, MA Sector: Software KleerMail helps companies use direct mail more effectively and achieve higher ROI on their programs.

KnowledgeTree Raleigh, NC Sector: Document Management KnowledgeTree's solutions drive productivity by working smarter with business documents.

Krawler Pune, India Sector: Software Business Intelligence software for CRM, SCM, HR, project management, financial management and retail management.

Leapfactor Miami, FL Sector: Software Builds mobile enterprise apps that are robust and secure, yet as easy to use as consumer apps.

LincWare Rochester, NY Sector: Software LincWare's LincDoc family of eForm creation and document automation tools empowers businesses and municipal organizations to better serve their customers and constituents, and reduce costs.

LineRate Systems Louisville, CO Sector: Networking Helps data centers dynamically scale from gigabits to terabits per second of application layer performance using only low-cost, off-the-shelf commodity x86 servers.

LockPath Overland Park, KS Sector: Security Writes software that helps companies of all sizes address the complex issues of regulatory compliance and risk management.

Lucid Imagination Redwood City, CA Sector: Other Sells open-source enterprise search application built with Apache Solr and Apache Lucene with web site search strategies.

MapR Technologies San Jose, CA Sector: Software MapR Distribution brings dependability, speed and ease-of-use to Hadoop, providing data protection and business continuity.

Marketo Dublin, Ireland Sector: Software Sells a revenue performance management solution.

MeLLmo San Diego, CA Sector: Software A mobile app that integrates with companies' existing business intelligence and CRM systems to create analytics designed for iPhones and iPads.

Meraki San Francisco, CA Sector: Networking Provides wireless networks controlled in the cloud.

Millenniata Provo, UT Sector: Storage The M-DISC and M-WRITER Drive technology are permanent optical data storage devices.

Mixpanel San Francisco, CA Sector: Web Analytics Offers an analytics service that helps improve web and mobile applications by tracking how users interact with them.

Mortar Data New York, NY Sector: Software Makes custom big data work easy by leveraging existing skills and tools.

Newvem Tel Aviv, Israel Sector: Cloud Computing Enhances cloud usage effectiveness through data analytics.

NexGen Storage Louisville, CO Sector: Storage Delivers SAN solutions with configurable, deterministic performance and Quality of Service for virtual server environments.

Nextivity San Diego, CA Sector: Telecommunications Creator of the Cel-Fi Indoor Coverage solution.

Nicira Palo Alto, CA Sector: Networking Delivers software that virtualizes the network and enables elastic, scale-out data centers.

Nimble Storage San Jose, CA Sector: Storage S-Series iSCSI arrays combine flash memory with low-cost, high-capacity drives for primary storage and separate disk-based backup solutions.

Nimbula Mountain View, CA Sector: Software ProvidesInfrastructure-as-a-Service software.

Nine Technology Middleboro, MA Sector: Software Powered By Nine is a leading online backup and recovery solution set for MSP, VAR, and data center manager partners.

NopSec Brooklyn, NY Sector: Security Helps organizations assess IT security risks and deploys security solutions based on commercially viable open-architecture/open-source solutions.

Nutanix San Jose, CA Sector: Virtualization Offers a simple compute and storage infrastructure for implementing enterprise-class virtualization without complex and expensive network storage (SAN or NAS).

Omek Interactive Bet Shemesh, Israel Sector: Software Provides tools and technology that enable manufacturers and software developers to add gesture-based interfaces to their products.

OnApp London, U.K. Sector: Cloud Management Develops cloud software for hosting providers.

OS33 Brooklyn, NY Sector: Software Provides IT-as-a-Service delivery platform for MSPs.

Pano Logic Redwood City, CA Sector: Virtualization A complete end-to-end solution built for desktop virtualization and management.

Pardot Atlanta, GA Sector: Software Builds on-demand marketing automation solutions for business-to-business sales and marketing organizations.

PerfeITo Software Solutions Tamil Nadu, India Sector: Software PerfeITo's services include software application development, software product development, along with application management and technology integration solutions.

Pica8 San Jose, CA Sector: Networking Develops high-performance and low-cost network switches.

Pindrop Security Atlanta, GA Sector: Security Offers a caller-ID product that helps detect, report and mitigate phone fraud.

Piston Cloud Computing San Francisco, CA Sector: Cloud Computing Allows businesses to easily manage IT infrastructure as a single, flexible and dynamic cloud operating environment.

Porticor Tel Aviv, Israel Sector: Security Porticor Virtual Private Data provides Cloud security and cloud privacy within public clouds.

Private Cloud Leasing Bellingham, WA Sector: Cloud Sells self-contained data centers, preconfigured in a complete, standardized end-to-end, private-cloud-capable configuration.

Pure Storage Mountain View, CA Sector: Storage Products accelerate random I/O-intensive applications such as server virtualization, desktop virtualization, database and cloud computing.

QASymphony Dublin, CA Sector: Software Tests for and tracks bugs in the software development process.

QuorumLabs Fremont, CA Sector: Software Offers a business continuity appliance.

RelayWare Redwood City, CA Sector: SaaS Develops and deploys a SaaS-based Partner Relationship Management software solution.

Revolution Analytics Palo Alto, CA Sector: Software Revolution Analytics' solution provides the power of predictive analytics to customers of any budget.

RJMetrics Philadelphia, PA Sector: Software Develops business intelligence software delivered as a service over the Internet.

ROBOBAK Atlanta, GA Sector: Software Offers a cloud-based backup solution.

Saguna Networks Nesher, Israel Sector: Mobility Optimizes radio access networks and doubles capacity via a content and application acceleration solution.

SalesFusion Atlanta, GA Sector: Other Marketing automation platform used by B2B marketers to help integrate marketing technology and process with CRM solutions.

Scale Computing Indianapolis, IN Sector: Storage Scale's Intelligent Clustered Operating System (ICOS) is a multi-protocol, unified, scalable technology that brings enterprise-class file- and block-level services to the SME.

ScaleArc Santa Clara, CA Sector: Software ScaleArc iDB software abstracts database servers from application servers to provide instant horizontal scaling and connection management, and enables realtime visibility.

ScaleXtreme San Mateo, CA Sector: Security Provides cloud systems management from the cloud.

SecondLook Solutions East Rockaway, NY Sector: Cloud-Based Document Management A cloud-based application for document management, with many different ways of organizing, managing and collaborating.

Silver Tail Systems Palo Alto, CA Sector: Security Uses realtime web-session intelligence and behavioral analysis to defend against cybercrime.

SkyDox London, U.K. Sector: Cloud Computing Provides cloud-enabled file sharing and collaboration features, co-authoring, commenting, version control, audit trails for documents and files.

SlimWare Utilities Ocean Springs, MS Sector: Software SlimComputer, SlimCleaner and SlimDrivers use the cloud and crowd-sourcing to improve a consumer's computer hardware and software configurations.

SmartDeploy Seattle, WA Sector: Software Provides IT systems management solutions that reduce the time, cost and complexity of managing Windows clients and servers.

Sokrati Pune, INia Sector: Software Offers digital marketing software that is an online platform for efficient management of search, social media and display advertising campaigns.

Starboard Storage Broomfield, CO Sector: Storage Starboard's AC72 Storage System helps manage mixed storage workloads.

StorSimple Santa Clara, CA Sector: Cloud Delivers an enterprise cloud storage appliance that enables customers to seamlessly and transparently integrate cloud storage services.

SurDoc Menlo Park, CA Sector: Cloud Storage Allows backup, editing and sharing of documents anywhere, anytime with only a browser.

SuVolta Los Gatos, CA Sector: Hardware Develops and licenses semiconductor technologies that enable a significant reduction in IC power consumption while maintaining performance.

Tegile Newark, CA Sector: Storage Offers affordable feature-rich storage arrays that are faster and can store more data than standard arrays.

Tidemark Systems Redwood City, CA Sector: Software Specializes in enterprise performance management applications.

Tintri Mountain View, CA Sector: Storage Designed from the ground up for flash and virtualization, the VM-aware storage appliance delivers flash performance at disk prices.

Tufin Technologies Burlington, MA Sector: Security Security policy management for firewalls and routers enables customers to cut risks and time, and achieve continuous compliance.

TwinStrata Natick, MA Sector: Storage TwinStrata is an innovator in enterprise-class data storage, data protection and disaster recovery/business continuity solutions using cloud storage.

Vaultive New York, NY Sector: Cloud Offers cloud data encryption solutions that enhance productivity and efficiencies of cloud computing while maintaining the data security, control and compliance advantages of on-premise computing.

VCE Richardson, TX Sector: Converged Infrastructure Builds Vblock infrastructure platforms

VDIworks Austin, TX Sector: Virtualization Provides virtual desktop enablement and management software.

Veeam Software Columbus, OH Sector: Virtualization Sells solutions for data protection and virtual infrastructure management.

Veracode Burlington, MA Sector: Security The Veracode cloud-based platform provides the fastest, most comprehensive solution to improve the security of internally developed, purchased or outsourced software applications and third-party components.

VersaReports Atlanta, GA Sector: Software ReportServer is a report server that works with any report designer, including Crystal Reports, DevExpress XtraReports and Telerik Reporting.

Vidtel Sunnyvale, CA Sector: Cloud Provides high-definition and standard-definition videoconferencing on-demand on a monthly subscription basis or a pay-as-you-go fee.

Viewfinity Waltham, MA Sector: Software Creates privilege management and application control solutions.

Virtual Bridges Austin, TX Sector: Virtualization Virtual Bridges VERDE combines online, offline and remote branch VDI solutions to offer anytime, anywhere access to virtual desktops.

Virtual Instruments San Jose, CA Sector: Virtualization Virtual Instruments develops solutions for Infrastructure Performance Management for customers' physical, virtual, and cloud computing environments.

VKernel Andover, MA Sector: Virtualization VKernel vOperations Suite, an enterprise-class performance and capacity management solution, uses predictive and realtime analysis to simplify monitoring, capacity planning, reporting and chargeback.

VMTurbo Burlington, MA Sector: Virtualization Offers Virtual Appliances for the management, optimization and automation of virtual infrastructures.

Wanova San Jose, CA Sector: Virtualization Provides turnkey desktop-as-a-service software.

Whiptail Whippany, NJ Sector: Storage Offers flash-based Solid-State storage array.

Yubico Palo Alto, CA Sector: Security The YubiKey is a one-time pad supplied as a USB device that generates passwords and sends them to PCs as keyboard characters.

Zendesk San Francisco, CA Sector: Software Provides an integrated on-demand helpdesk--customer support portal solution based on Web 2.0 technologies.

Zerto Boston, MA Sector: Software Offers enterprise-class disaster-recovery and business-continuity solutions for virtualized data centers and cloud environments.

Zettaset Mountain View, CA Sector: Software Delivers a fault-tolerant and highly available solution for massive data aggregation built on Hadoop.

Zscaler Sunnyvale, CA Sector: Security Zscaler provides policy-based secure Internet access for any employee, on any device, anywhere via a global cloud service.