COMPANY OF THE MONTH Nexenta Systems: and The Navigator for Enterprise Solutions Storage Redefined CIOREVIEW.COM FEBRUARY - 2015

he enormous influx of data associated with social media, mobile ap- 20 Most Promising Storage Solution Providers plications, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) have ushered-in a new era of IT that’s up-ended the status quo. Never rom time immemorial, changes and developments convoluted and fragmented storage industry when looking for before has so much data and so many applications traversed such an overwhelming number of platforms. Yet while hardware and software solu- were accomplished only through innovation. In service providers to aid them with consulting, implementation, T tions have proliferated, storage choice has been constrained. Even with the the current technological landscape, the inrush of and support. move to the cloud, the proliferation of open platforms, multiple protocols, and data and its complexities are caused due to surging In this edition of CIO Review, we bring to you “The 20 Most software-defined everything, enterprises are being sold on ‘Software-Defined increase in the usage of cloud solutions, IoT and Promising Storage Solutions Providers 2015,” featuring the Storage’ that doesn’t support diverse IT ecosystems. It’s the antithesis of where Fmobile apps. These trends serve as major proponents of best solution and service providers offering products, tools companies want to be today. Enterprise IT lives in a world where applications, change that steer companies towards successful and intelligent and services on the storage ecosystem. The companies listed protocols, hardware, public, private and hybrid networks, proprietary solutions and storage and management of data. Right from the redundant here showcase extensive business knowledge, innovative open source must peacefully co-exist. Unfortunately as IT struggles to create a legacy systems to much advanced storage platforms, many products and strategies combined with talent base across storage infrastructure that supports a multi-platform, petabyte-driven small, medium and large businesses, corporate bodies, and locations. environment, the proprietary hardware element in most Software- end-users have witnessed a tremendous reduction of cost of A distinguished panel comprising of CEOs, CIOs, CMOs, Defined Storage solutions limits their choices. data storage and management and software-ownership. Be it VCs, analysts and CIO Review editorial board has selected the Nexenta, the originator of Software-Defined Stor- offering a high capacity multi-platform support, or security, or top players from over three hundred companies. The listing age solutions (SDS)—chooses to b e app integration or hard disks, tape drives and virtual storage provides a look into how these solutions work in the real different. products and software, the list of some of the best storage world, so that you can gain a comprehensive understanding of Six years ago, when seeing providers in the market place goes on and on. However, what technologies are available, which are right for you, and that companies were deploy- many CIOs find it extremely challenging to navigate into the how they shape up against the competition. ing best of breed applications and platform solutions across multiple systems, Nexenta’s founders made an informed decision to support the Nexenta Systems, Inc. Company: Description: technology needs of their Nexenta Nexenta provides secure, customers. Headquartered recognized by magazine as high-performance, ultra-scalable, cloud- in California, the company optimized storage originated the concept and Key Person: software solutions on term ‘SDS’—realizing that Tarkan Maner any hardware platform by taking a zero-hardware CEO An annual listing of 20 companies that are in the forefront of tackling approach and freeing soft- challenges in the Storage industry. ware from the constraints of hardware, storage could be set Website: free to support almost any envi- Pradeep Shankar

Editor-in-Chief nexenta.com ronment. With their first prod- Tarkan Maner Chairman & CEO uct NexentaStor, the company

CIOReview|10 | july 2014 CIO Review |36 | February 2015 COMPANY OF THE MONTH Nexenta Systems: Software and Storage Redefined

he enormous influx of data associated with social media, mobile ap- plications, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) have ushered-in a new era of IT that’s up-ended the status quo. Never before has so much data and so many applications traversed such Tan overwhelming number of platforms. Yet while hardware and software solu- tions have proliferated, storage choice has been constrained. Even with the move to the cloud, the proliferation of open platforms, multiple protocols, and software-defined everything, enterprises are being sold on ‘Software-Defined Storage’ that doesn’t support diverse IT ecosystems. It’s the antithesis of where companies want to be today. Enterprise IT lives in a world where applications, protocols, hardware, public, private and hybrid networks, proprietary solutions and open source must peacefully co-exist. Unfortunately as IT struggles to create a storage infrastructure that supports a multi-platform, petabyte-driven environment, the proprietary hardware element in most Software- Defined Storage solutions limits their choices. Nexenta, the originator of Software-Defined Stor- age solutions (SDS)—chooses to b e different. Six years ago, when seeing that companies were deploy- ing best of breed applications and platform solutions across multiple systems, Nexenta’s founders made an informed decision to support the technology needs of their customers. Headquartered in California, the company originated the concept and term ‘SDS’—realizing that by taking a zero-hardware approach and freeing soft- ware from the constraints of hardware, storage could be set free to support almost any envi- ronment. With their first prod- Tarkan Maner Chairman & CEO uct NexentaStor, the company

CIO Review |36 | February 2015 CIOReview| 11 | july 2014 developed an open framework and Software-Defined Storage so- The company employs a friendly, customer-centric approach, lution that functioned on any protocol—, file, x86 platform assisting organizations in deploying the most appropriate storage and any hard disk or flash or even hybrid environment. In fact, software solutions, ensuring highly available data reduction, data Nexenta remains the only software-only SDS company to support compression and . solution-rich and diverse corporate ecosystems. Nexenta’s culture is all about fusion, the company credits its “Today, NexentaStor and NexentaConnect are the only stor- success to talented and diverse workforce with deep acumen in the age options that remain completely application and hardware- storage, including open storage technologies. Overall, Nexenta cre- agnostic,” says Tarkan Maner, Chairman and CEO of Nexenta ates a dynamic environment to excel and lead in the storage arena. Systems. “By not selling appliances, we deliver storage software Innovation alone is not just enough to succeed. Any form of inno- un-tethered by the limitations of any single hardware platform, vation must translate into financial, legal and operational results. including VMware, Citrix, OpenStack, Cisco, HP, , Super- Nexenta thus believes in embracing latest technology trends and Micro and Microsoft products. This literally transforms the stor- investing in IT innovation to stay ahead of competition. age ecosystem.” Hardware vendor lock-in is one of the primary hurdles many companies go thorough after investing in a storage system. As the storage needs of users or companies increase, they are forced to upgrade and buy the most fitting hardware that work in con- junction with their storage software needs at that time. Nexenta clearly understands that no environment is static, so they use a ‘people, process and product- oriented’ strategy to assess both current and future storage requirements. The company relent- Our open source lessly strives to free customers from the muddle of legacy storage collaboration combined systems that prove to be confining and more expensive in the long run. with software defined In one instance, Wipro, a leading IT consulting and system integration firm approached Nexenta to provide the data everything innovation storage infrastructure for thousands of their virtuadesk users. With NexentaStor, Wipro saw that OpenSDx-delivers its end users could have great flexibil- thousands of customers a ity in their hardware purchases as well as access to user pro- flexible, vendor agnostic files at dramatically higher speeds. This was lower TCO solution achieved in themost cost-effective way. “We ' achieved great perfor- mance metrics while The Company You Keep being able to scale our- In less than five years, Nexenta has amassed over 6,000 customers storage capacity with- and nearly 1,000 partners across the globe. Their customers have out excess expense,” deployed more than 1 Exabyte of storage globally. Nexenta is a said Andrey Zhu- respected global brand and has successfully etched out a unique lenev, general man- disruptive reputation in the international market, Maner states. ager of Wipro. With “The concept of ‘zero hardware software’ has been a winning success stories like formula. We take pride in the fact that we’ve helped thousands of this, Nexenta also companies clean up the MESS left by Massively Expensive Stor- enjoys notewor- age Systems. We’ve helped them lower overall storage costs with thy alliances with our collaboration with the Open Source community along with disk and flash deep innovation around the Software Defined Everything which vendors such as we call as OpenSDx,” said Maner. “As a result, 2014 was the big- Seagate, SanD- gest fiscal year in the company’s history; and we have big plans isk, Western Digi- to redefine the IT industry in the next few years with our 100% tal, and Samsung. Software, Total Freedom and All Love approach.

CIOReview|12 | july 2014 CIO Review |37 | February 2015