Building a data storage start-up in this economy is quite a challenge, but there is room for innovation in an industry suffering from inefficiency and massive growth in data volumes. CIO.com has put a list together of nine data storage start-ups that are trying to address such problems with technologies including memory virtualisation, flash-based solid-state disks and cloud storage.
One particularly interesting start-up is Scale Computing
“Founded: October 2007
Headquarters: Indianapolis, Inc
What it offers: SN 1000 and SN 2000, storage nodes which use Scale’s clustered file system to create storage-area network (SAN) or NAS systems with commodity hardware.
How company got its start: The founders were trying to build a supercomputer for less than $60,000 using commodity hardware, and needed a clustered file system and storage, and discovered a problem: they couldn’t find 5TB of appropriate storage for a price less than $50,000.
Why it’s worth watching: With clustered systems lacking a single point of failure, Scale Computing can offer reliable Tier 2 and Tier 3 storage for prices starting at $11,000. Forrester Research analyst Andrew Reichman notes that Scale will face stiff competition from the likes of Dell EqualLogic and HP LeftHand, but that it does offer the advantages of low cost and native NAS capabilities.
“For a small company that has both file and block storage, it’s nice to have SAN and NAS in one system,”
Reichman says.
How company got its name: The name, not surprisingly, refers to scalability of computing resources.
CEO: Jeff Ready was previously CEO and co-founder of Corvigo, an anti-spam appliance vendor acquired by Tumbleweed Communications.
Funding: $5 million from BlueChip, Springmill, CID and State of Indiana 21st Century Fund
Who’s using the product: Customers include a Fortune 500 telecom company, and others in the legal and health-care industries.”
