What’s Next for Nexenta ?

Since its inception in 2005, Santa Clara, CA-based Nexenta, raised a total of $54 million, has grown steadily in the software defined storage market, with 100% growth Y/Y for the last few years. The company unveils what’s next:

• Client base: The software only approach of Nexenta allows customers all around the globe to use the solution rather easily. The company claims to have 5,000 customers worldwide, 2,500 of them being paid users. It faces  two challenges regarding its customer base:

  • One is keep growing. In a market where NetApp and EMC trust a large majority of the user base, Nexenta’s mission is to break this duopoly and gain new customers with its software-only approach rather than the all-in-one integrated solutions. With 250 customers in Japan-  with only 1 representative there -, the brand name seems to work pretty well on its own but it also reveal other challenges.

  • Convert more customers to their paid plans. The Nexenta software is free until a certain capacity. And, like these kinds of model, the key is to convince people into paying the product. But the company seems confident enough in the market to let that happen organically, as storage needs grow, customers will make the switch naturally.

• Expansion. As its customer base grows, Nexenta needs to grow too and address new geographic markets.

  • Nexenta’s customers are approximately 40% in the U.S., 40% in Europe and 20% in AsiaPac regions. But the company has currently one office in the U.S. one in Amsterdam and  three on the Asia Pacific region to serve all consumers worldwide. In April 2014 the company will be opening new offices in Paris, France to serve Southern Europe and AsiaPac markets. It also closed a deal for distribution network in Germany and France.

  • Expansion also means hiring more staff, and the company is looking to double its maintenance staff, currently composed of 35 people, and is also searching for R&D executives.

• Software Development. Nexenta is software at its core, meaning that talking about what is next for the company involves software no matter what. And the company has also some news on this side.

  • V4.0 of NexentaStor: With the addition of Server Message Block 2.1, support for 512GB memory, reduction of failover times and other features for its product based on OpenStorage ZFS technology, with availability of this just released version in Q2 2014.

  • NexentaConnect 2.3: An update to the software centered around virtualization OpenStack and CloudStack which will include analytics systems and will be available during early Q2 too.

  • NexentaEdge: A software solution that will focus on object storage should be unveiled in December of this year with a beta preview somewhere during the summer.

What doesn’t change at Nexenta?

• The company is still owned by employees at 50% and wants to keep things like that for independence purposes. The company wants to rely on its employees not on investors.

• Talks about an IPO are starting to come up, no precise date, probably in the “next 24 months” according to CEO Tarkan Maner.

• The firm is still focusing on strengthening relationship with partners like Dell, HP, IBM and securing more patents.