Igneous Systems launches on-premises cloud data service
After Nutanix IPO doubled out of the gate and made everyone rich, I was asked last week who is the next Nutanix unicorn in the enterprise.
My answer was the next Nutanix will NOT look like Nutanix.
Since Nutanix was founded just a few years ago that was before the rapid rise in dominance of Amazon Web Services. Now the world is all about AWS
For all the computing activity that’s moving to the cloud, many companies need to maintain some of their systems and data in their own data centers — either because they’re generating too much to move easily into the cloud or because they don’t want to risk exposing their crown jewels. But they still want all the benefits of the cloud, such as new data-intensive services with no capital costs.
That reality is spawning a host of services, the latest of which is Igneous Systems Inc. The Seattle-based startup is launching what it calls the Igneous Data Service, which lets customers install purpose built appliance in their data centers to content storage service that is API compatible with Simple Storage Service, Amazon Web Services storage service.
This hybrid cloud approach isn’t entirely new. Traditional enterprise hardware and software companies ranging from Oracle Corp. and VMware to Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. and Dell Technologies Inc. are angling for a piece of the market. So are upstarts such as CloudZero, Scality, Platform9 and the newly public Nutanix.
Unlike traditional data center suppliers and even some private cloud providers, however, Igneous manages the hardware and software itself, so the system works much like the public cloud. The company is focused currently on the challenge of large-scale data storage, supporting AWS’s S3 storage standard. But the design of the services will allow for future services to manage new data pipelines through serverless computing, stream processing, event driven computing and container services.
The company’s founders and early employees hail from “hyperscale” storage companies such as Isilon Systems Inc, EMC Corp., NetApp Inc., Microsoft Corp. and AWS. The company, which holds 11 patents, has raised a relatively modest $27 million so far from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Madrona Group, RedPoint, and Isilon founder Sujal Patel.
The bottom line is that big enterprises have problems moving large datasets that can be several petabytes per hours to the cloud. By helping them avoid having to do that but still get the benefits of cloud computing, Igneous hopes to grab a position in the lucrative hybrid cloud market.
