Storage Vendors to Watch: View from SNW

Background

I had the pleasure of conversing with numerous end users, small to large, during three days of SNW conference. Typically, I found end-users to be more willing to discuss different topics and express opinions. I am not sure why vendors rarely can have an open and fun conversation. They tend to become clam.

Most end-users request anonymity and rightly so considering the prior troubles of one end user, I heard at SNW. An unscrupulous storage journalist published an overheard conversation with name of the end user, without permission, resulting in legal and HR issues for this person. Anyway, no name of end users on my blog. I met some great people at SNW with whom I hope to stay in touch for a long time to come.

I received vendor briefing from IBRIX, Axeda, Storewiz, Njini, Asempra, STORServer, VMware and Falconstor. Thank you to the executives from these companies to come and talk to me. I hope to provide digital ink in some form, favorable or unfavorable, to them in near future.

I also had interesting conversations for couple of hours with guys involved in M&A (Merger & Acquisitions) scouting storage companies at SNW. The experience with raising private equity for my last startup made discussing the prospects of various storage companies a fun exercise.

Most information in Storage Vendors to Watch series comes from my conversations at SNW.

Companies that were not present at SNW

Interestingly to start this series, I want to talk about two companies that were not present at SNW but were part of conversation at SNW. The reason, I am excited about these companies because all the initial information came from end-users currently investigating or evaluating their products. Hopefully, the end-users were not plugged in to SNW by these companies to disseminate positive information.

To be continued …