When I last spoke to Rainstor, a new round of funding had just come in and prospects seemed bright. It could hardly have happened at a better time. A recent Information Week study of 437 business technology professionals showed that more than half are managing over 10 TB of data, 7% managing 201-500 TB, and 8% more than 500 TB. The study says that “for the first time enterprise storage architects are more worried about meeting capacity demands than they are about data security.” On the heels of the Economist’s recent assertion that more data is being generated than storage being built to contain it, the issue is more critical than ever.
Challenges like this play directly to Rainstor’s value proposition. With the unrelenting data explosion affecting organizations in many industries, a new technology approach is more necessary than ever to address the need for ongoing data retention that allows businesses to focus on top-line growth, not managing costs. Solutions like RainStor’s directly address the need to maintain large data sets adjacent to transactional systems without overloading them, and improve business agility by providing online access to that data for query and analysis. Rainstor’s combination of data retention and online access directly addresses that Big Data challenge.
I caught up with the team last week. The firm has clearly been aggressively ramping up, hiring, and preparing for aggressive market entry. Deals are already in progress with key partners. Informatica, a participant in the recent funding round, is already driving leads; every ILM deal ships with Rainstor. EMC is on board as well, and there are more to come that Rainstor is not yet ready to announce publicly.
With over 75 installations, Rainstor is hardening and extending its technology to meet its customers’ growing needs. I expect a new version in the not-too distant future, but the team is not discussing that yet. Still, it appears well positioned to leverage a market that will likely heat up dramatically in the months ahead.
Disclosure: Rainstor is a client of IT Market Strategy.