Emerging Vendors 2014: Storage Vendors
Storage Superstars
Each year in our Emerging Vendors list, CRN looks at the tech startups making their presence known in the industry. Each company on the list also has an all-important quality: It has demonstrated that it understands the value of the channel. Here we look at the emerging players in the storage industry, those that are blazing a trail through innovative online backup services, NAS and SAN appliances, flash storage systems, unique cloud storage platforms, virtualized storage technology and much more.
Actifio
Waltham, Mass.
Top Executive: Founder, CEO Ash Ashutosh
Fast-growing Actifio developed a copy data management platform that eliminates the problem of "data sprawl" by creating a single copy of an organization's production data and making it virtually available for backup, disaster recovery, software development and testing, business analytics and archiving purposes.
Amplidata
Milpitas, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Mike Wall
Amplidata develops the Amplistor object-based storage technology for storing hundreds of petabytes of data at half the cost of RAID-based storage systems. In June Amplidata debuted its next-generation storage management software, based on its Himalaya architecture, for cloud service providers, OEMs and enterprises.
Avere Systems
Pittsburgh
Top Executive: President, CEO Ron Bianchini
Avere builds high-performance, network-attached storage for hybrid cloud systems that automatically tier customers' data, storing the most-accessed data on filers and less-active data on other NAS appliances. Earlier this month the company raised $20 million in Series D financing.
Backupify
Cambridge, Mass.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Rob May
Backupify provides cloud-to-cloud backup and recovery solutions for Software-as-a-Service applications such as Salesforce.com. In April the company unveiled plans to expand support to Box, NetSuite, Dropbox, Office 365, Zendesk and others.
BridgeStor
Poway, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO John Matze
Vowing to eliminate the need for backup software, BridgeStor develops technology that makes it easier for organizations to access cloud-based data. Its Cloud Storage File System transforms complex, object-based cloud storage into traditional file-based storage accessible by standard Windows and Linux applications and management tools.
BUMI
New York
Top Executive: President Jennifer Walzer
BUMI (for "backup my info") provides managed online backup and recovery solutions for SMBs. Partners can acquire BUMI technology as software to create a private backup and recovery cloud, a solution using BUMI's data centers or a hybrid solution.
Ciphertex Data Security
Chatsworth, Calif.
Top Executive: Founder, President Jerry Kaner
Ciphertex markets secure, portable data storage systems that incorporate advanced hardware encryption technology. The company's direct-attached storage and network-attached storage systems provide high levels of performance, security and reliability for such markets as government and health care.
CloudByte
Campbell, Calif.
Top Executive: Founder, CEO, CTO Felix Xavier
CloudByte positions itself as an alternative to expensive legacy SAN systems. Its ElastiStor operating system combined with its hardware appliance allows any size organization to deploy a secure cloud storage system for multi-application environments.
Cobalt Iron
Lawrence, Kan.
Top Executive: Founder, CEO Richard Spurlock
Cobalt Iron offers a suite of data protection and recovery services. Its Cobalt Iron Data Protection Portfolio can be installed on-premise with Cobalt Iron Vault appliances and/or in public or private clouds, or as part of a hosted solution.
Coho Data
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Ramana Jonnala
Founded by Xensource/Citrix and storage industry veterans, Coho offers the DataStream Storage System for organizations building large "Web-scale" private clouds. In March the company launched the DataStream 1000 that combines commodity hardware with the vendor's software to deliver storage at a price/performance better than all-flash systems.
Ctera Networks
New York
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Liran Eshel
Ctera Networks is a cloud storage and data protection hardware and software company that specializes in cloud storage gateways. Earlier this month the company closed on a $25 million Series C financing round.
Exablox
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Doug Brockett
Exablox is a developer of on-premise storage arrays with cloud management capabilities for midrange customers. In May the company introduced its first official channel program as part of a move to expand its reach into the midsize customer storage market.
Genie9
Burlington, Mass.
Top Executive: CEO Muayyad Shehadeh
Genie9 develops data storage management and disaster recovery services for consumers, SMBs and large businesses. The company's offerings include the Genie Timeline backup solution and Zoolz cloud-based data backup and storage services based on Amazon's low-cost Glacier online file storage service.
Gridstore
Mountain View, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO George Symons
Gridstore develops software-defined storage systems, built on its patented Server-Side Virtual Controller Technology, that are designed to accelerate applications in virtualized environments. Earlier this month the company revealed the integration of Gridstore 3 with Microsoft System Center 2012.
HeroWare
San Clemente, Calif.
Top Executive: President and CEO Bob Erickson
HeroWare markets a number of business continuity, secure backup and disaster recovery appliances, software and cloud services that help businesses meet HIPAA/HITECH requirements. Offerings include the Hero Defender appliance line, Secure-Suite applications and Secure Cloud.
Infinio
Cambridge, Mass.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Arun Agarwal
Infinio launched its Infinio Accelerator storage performance tools for virtual environments in November. The company recently debuted version 1.2 of the software with support for VMware vSphere 5.5. And in June Scott Davis, a former VMware divisional CTO, joined Infinio as CTO.
Infrascale
El Segundo, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Ken Shaw Jr.
Infrascale is a storage Platform-as-a-Service company with a secure, scalable cloud storage platform that works in both private and public cloud environments. Infrascale's infrastructure solutions include raw cloud storage, backup as a service, archiving as a service, and file server as a service. In June it raised $16.3 in Series B finding.
Kaminario
Newton, Mass.
Top Executive: CEO Dani Golan
All-flash storage array maker Kaminario gave its products an enterprise edge in May when it debuted Kaminario K2 v5 with new capabilities for enterprise data services, while also offering a cost-effective solution for midsize companies.
Maginatics
Mountain View, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Amarjit Gill
Maginatics develops a software-only data storage platform designed for software-defined data centers and cloud providers. The technology migrates workloads and corresponding data into the cloud without the need to modify applications or data sets. That offers a way to replace or consolidate traditional NAS appliances into public, private or hybrid clouds.
Maxta
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Top Executive: Founder, CEO Yoram Novick
The converged infrastructure technology developer entered the market in late 2013 with its Maxta Storage Platform, a software-only virtual storage technology that leverages a server's own storage and -- according to Maxta -- eliminates the need for storage arrays in virtualized data centers.
Mezeo Software
Houston
Top Executive: President, CEO Steve Lesem
Mezeo Software provides cloud storage services via its MezeoCloud platform, which enables implementation of public, private or hybrid cloud storage in conjunction with such partners as eFolder and Artisan Infrastructure. Channel partners can brand MezeoCloud as their own cloud storage solution.
Nakivo
Campbell, Calif.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Bruce Talley
Nakivo develops data protection products for VMware virtualized environments. The company's backup and replication software enables small businesses to protect, encrypt, compress and de-duplicate data both on-site with local storage and off-site with public clouds such as Amazon Web Services.
Nasuni
Natick, Mass.
Top Executive: Founder, CEO Andres Rodriguez
Nasuni offers technology that virtualizes data storage infrastructure and delivers it as a service via public clouds. Last month Nasuni won a patent for its multisite access technology for connecting to a single namespace in the cloud from any number of locations.
Nexenta Systems
Santa Clara, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Tarkan Maner
Nexenta's software-defined data storage products include the NexentaStor appliance that works with virtualized servers, and NexentaConnect that optimizes virtual desktop infrastructure deployments on legacy shared storage or converged infrastructure. The company sells exclusively through the channel.
Nimble Storage
San Jose, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Suresh Vasudevan
In June, Nimble Storage introduced its Adaptive Flash solutions, which included the CS700 Series arrays and an All-Flash Shelf that is capable of supporting a petabyte of capacity.
Parsec Labs
Minneapolis
Top Executive: CEO Walter Angerer
Startup Parsec Labs is developing storage virtualization technology for network-attached storage systems. The company has said the technology will accelerate data access to existing NAS systems while adding compression and de-duplication to reduce storage capacity by about 60 percent.
Primary Data
Salt Lake City
Top Executive: CEO David Flynn
Primary Data remains largely in stealth mode as it develops what it describes as next-generation data virtualization and mobility technologies to manage how information is stored and shared globally. The startup closed on $50 million in funding in October.
Pure Storage
Mountain View, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Scott Dietzen
All-flash storage array developer Pure Storage in May expanded its enterprise-class FlashArray 400 Series with new entry-level and high-capacity arrays. The vendor also released Purity 4.0, the next generation of its Purity Operating Environment.
Savage IO
Batavia, N.Y.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Phillip Roberto
Savage IO develops high-capacity converged data storage systems, including its DataBrick system, an alternative to legacy storage systems that combine server, storage and network capabilities.
Skyera
San Jose, Calif.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Radoslav Danilak
Skyera develops enterprise all-solid-state storage systems. The company's storage arrays take advantage of the most advanced NAND flash technology that delivers high-capacity and low-power consumption with flash-optimized enterprise software features.
Storiant
Boston
Top Executive: CEO Jeff Flowers
Storiant, previously known as SageCloud, develops "cold storage" technology that provides a low-cost way to handle storage tiering, archival, backup and compliance data with a single solution as a way to manage data growth and provide big data analytics. The company says it reduces the cost of storing petabytes of data by as much as 90 percent.
SwiftStack
San Francisco
Top Executive: CEO Joe Arnold
SwiftStack is a startup developer of software-defined storage technology based on the OpenStack Object Storage project (code-named "Swift"). In June the company launched SwiftStack 2.0 for object storage that's designed to provide the management, integration and scalability needed to handle massive volumes of data.
Talon
Mt. Laurel, N.J.
Top Executive: CEO Shirish Phatak
Talon provides Microsoft File Aware application acceleration and storage solutions for branch office infrastructure. The company's RemoteFAST flagship product provides customers with the most future-proof investment for today's branch offices, ensuring scalable and reliable application performance along with business collaboration across distributed workforce environments.
Tarmin
Cambridge, Mass.
Top Executive: President, CEO Shahbaz Ali
Tarmin's massively scalable GridBank technology helps organizations store, control and understand the value of data as a competitive business asset, no matter its size, location or cost by uniting application, information and storage tiers into a single, integrated data centric management architecture.
Tegile Systems
Newark, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Rohit Kshetrapal
Tegile Systems develops its IntelliFlash hybrid flash and all-flash storage array systems purpose-built to deliver optimized storage performance for various application workloads including server virtualization, virtual desktops, online transaction processing and real-time analytics.
Tintri
Mountain View, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Ken Klein
Tintri builds hybrid flash and disk storage appliances that handle hundreds of VMware VMs and their data storage in a single device, appearing to a server like a direct-attached storage array. The application-aware storage eliminates planning and complex troubleshooting by providing VM-level visibility, control, insight and agility.
Zadara Storage
Irvine, Calif.
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Nelson Nahum
Zadara Storage develops enterprise Storage-as-a-Service technology, delivering file and block storage capabilities through a pay-as-you-go model for on-premise deployment and for global service providers. Its services are based on its patent-pending, software-defined Virtual Private Storage Arrays technology.
Zetta.net
Sunnyvale, Calif.
Top Executive: CEO Ali Jenab
Zetta.net provides enterprise cloud backup, disaster recovery and archiving services for SMBs and MSPs. Its flagship DataProtect provides cloud-based backups, replication of data with built-in WAN optimization, and snapshots that can be rolled back to earlier versions of stored data.