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DOCUMENT: (About) All Dead Storage Start-Ups

126 companies that finally closed their doors

We have filled a database since many years with all the storage start-ups we have discovered. This files contains exactly 700 companies today. 23 became public, 193 were sold – including some of them that became public before their acquisition. And 126 died and were closed.

At the end, a storage start-up has 18% of chances not to survive – 28% to be acquired and only 3% succeed with an IPO.

For their investors, death is a shame. The most spectacular example is StorageNetWorks, born in 1998 and that received $205 million in financial funding before dying. Sanrise got also got as much as $203 million.

Several of them even never went out of stealth mode.

It’s easier to find a new start-up
rather than to know when the firm stopped its activity. There is never a press release for such a bad event. The best way is to verify if the firm closed its web site.

Here is  ranking of all these dead firms by activity
(when known):

  • Software: 42%
  • Hardware: 34%
  • Fundamental hardware technology: 15%
  • Connexion: 5%
  • Infiniband: 4%
  • SSP: 3%
  • Security: 1%

Note: total is more than 100% because some firms are classified in more than one category.

Why they didn’t succeed?
There are a lot of reasons, among them:

  • Good technology but launched too early, the market not being ready. Sometimes it’s not the best to be the first one. An example is Platypus with SSDs as soon as in 1999.
  • Abrupt competition because the technology was really impressive and rapidly duplicated by big competitors.
  • Bad idea and no market (like Cornice in small form-factor HDDs) or already filled.
  • Storage fundamental technology on paper never possible to achieve (holography, etc.)
  • Inept management.
  • Proprietary technology without second source not acceptable for OEMs or end users.
  • Not enough financial funding to survive.

                        
All Dead Storage Start-Ups

Company (HQs)
Founded
in
Total funding
in $ million
Activity and comments
1Vision Software (Loveland, CO)  1996  3.85 storage management software and tools for files stored on removable media and on the Web; no more web site in 2010
Abrevity (Cupertino, CA)  2003   data classification software; to be sold in 2009?
Accelion (San Jose, CA)  1997  22+ OS delivering APIs that couples storage to applications; former Spacedisk and SSP; no more Web site in 2004
Acirro (San Jose, CA)  2000  9.5 distributed file system to simplify the management of distributed storage networks; no more web site in 2007; closed
Activium (New York City, NY)  2000   NeXtorage, virtual storage network software gateway: no more web site in 2004
Advanced Storage Array Products (Richardson, TX)  1999   StorSight SAN management software; no more Web site in 2006
Advanticom (Lebanon, NJ)  1996   managed services, collocation, and disaster recovery solutions
agami Systems (Sunnyvale, CA)  2003  85 NAS; founded by former Zambeel employees; formerly StorAD; closed doors in 2008
Alpine Technologies (Dallas, TX)     storage subsystem
Anavient  2001   real-time, content-aware usage, rating, mediation, and business analytics software solution for storage services; in USA? no more Web site in 2006
Anthony Solutions (San Jose, CA)  1999  15 storage networking solutions with own ASIC for SMBs; move from Korea to San Jose in 2002
Ateonix Networks (Fremont, CA)     NAS with software in flash memory
AutoVirt (Nashua, NH)  2007  24 data migration for Windows with file virtualization; closed in 2011
Avyang Systems     virtual tape appliance
BazinStor Technologies     probably born in 2009 or 2010; no more web site in 2011
BigStorage (San Francisco, CA)  1999   NAS, SCSI and FC RAID; currently division of Torque Systems; no more Web site in 2006
BlackBall (San Diego, CA)  2000   storage software providing descriptive metadata indexing for rich media files; Al Shugart chairman
Broadband Storage (Irvine, CA)  2000  16 filer solution combining NAS and SAN;  no more Web site in 2006
Calimetrics (Alameda, CA)  1994  50 multilevel CD and DVD discs; TDK partner; closed in 2005: IP acquired by LSI
Call/Recall (San Diego, CA)  1987   roots in HPC industry; funded by U.S. government grants; 2-photon recorded 3D optical storage
Candera (Milpitas, CA)  2000  59 multiprotocol SAN switch; networked storage solutions; formerly Confluence Networks; partially funded by the CIA; closed doors in 2004
Cenata Networks (San Diego, CA)  2002   iSCSI accelerator; founded by former JNI employees; no more Web site in 2007
Cenatek (Morgan Hill, CA)  1998   solid state disks; no more web site in 2010
CenterBoard (Pleasanton, CA)  2003  12 Virtual Operational Data Store; no more Web site in 2006
Cereva Networks (Marlborough, MA)  1998  157.1 Internet storage  for storage providers and large enterprises with storage virtualization in the box; shuts down
Certive (Redwood City, CA)  1999   platform to automate data storage and management processes; also in Bangalore; no more web site in 2010
Cirtas Systems (San Jose, CA)  2008  32.5 cloud storage controllers for WAN optimization; probably closed in 2011
Coalsere (Tustin, CA)  2001  4.5 software based on its proprietary Distributed Intelligence For Storage; several executives from JNI; web closed in 2006
Constellation 3D (New York City, NY) 1995  35.9 high capacity optical discs using patented fluorescent multilayer material; labs in Russia and Israel; assets sold in 2003 to D Data
Convergent Data Services (Greenwood Village, CO)     virtual media manager software, professional and consulting services:  started  Tavata Software  to focus on SRM software development; Web site disappears in 2005
Corigin (Or Yehuda, Israel)  1995   data sharing product suite; also in US and Europe; formerly NewFrame; no more web site in 2006
Cornice (Longmont, CO) 2000  178 formerly Convergent Systems Solutions; in one-inch hard disk drive manufactured by TDK’s subsidiary SAE in China; decided to enter in flash memory in 2007; closed in 2007
Crosswalk (Westminster, CO)  2004   launched by former McData executives; grid storage software; closed in 2007
D Data (New York, NY)  2003   15GB multilayer optical disc and drive using fluorescent technology; acquired assets of Constellation 3D
DataPlay (Boulder, CO)  1998  119 32mm optical disc storing up to 500MB; IP acquired by DPHI in 2002; DPHI purchased in 2008 the assets and IP of DaTARIUS and resume operations immediately
Digital Appliance (Milpitas, CA)     fabric-attached storage solutions; also in Ra’anana, Israel; no more web site
DivergeNet (San Jose, CA) 2001   IB channel adapters, switches and bridges; no more web site
epm software (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) 2001   self-funded; software for proactive, rule based monitoring of the application and communication with the storage infrastructure; no more web site in 2006; seems to became Apica Systems
Exavio (Santa Clara, CA)  2002  17.3 SAN acceleration; also in China; no more web site in 2007
Exstor (Menlo Park, CA)  2002   NAS; formerly Nexstor; employees sued by BlueArc; no more web site in 2006
FibreStream (Minneapolis, MN)  2001   Virtual Storage Gateway (VSG) for file and block data over Ethernet; no more web site in 2006
GS Magicstor (China)  2001   one-inch hard disk drive manufacturer; drive designed by RioSpring; no more web site in 2007; some assets sold to Excelstor
Hispread Technologies (St. Jacques de la Lande, France)     GridStorage P2P backup & recovery software; no more web site in 2006
Ikadega (Northbrook, IL)  2000  15 server architecture merging computing, network and storage; ceased operations
Imperative Networks (Israel)  2003   FC/iSCSI connection; formerly SANchips; no more web site in 2010
Independent Storage (Niwot, CO)    3 software handling file and block-level P2P traffic; sister company of Radiant; no more web site in 2006
InfiniSwitch (Wesborough, MA)  2000  29.9 IB switches; merged with Lane 15 in 2003 to become Fabric Networks: shuts its doors the same year
Inflection Systems (Westboro, MA) 2002  8.5 disk-based backup appliance; became ExaGrid Systems
Inkra Networks (Fremont, CA)  2000  56.6 class of data center switch that enables the rapid, non-disruptive, and secure delivery of IP services
InPhase Technologies (Longmont, CO)  2000  100 holographic storage technology; Lucent Technologies venture, spun out of Bell Labs research; $20 million D round in 2008? Signal Lake acquire majority stake of the company in 2010; under Chapter XI in 2011
Intermemory.net (Princeton, NJ)     software infrastructure for distributed applications, starting with storage systems (?); working with Yanilos Laboratories; no more web site in 2010
iReady (Santa Clara, CA)  1996  60+ accelerated Internet and iSCSI protocol system-on-a-chip; assets sold to Nvidia in 2004
iScale (Mountain View, CA)  2000   network storage management software (?); no more web site in 2006
iStorage (Gilford, NH)     iSCSI andD NAS for SMBs; in relation with iStor Networks? no more web site in 2006
iVivity (Norcross, GA)  2001  61 10Gb HBA; no more web site in 2010
iWitness (Boulder, CO)  1998  15 electronic records management platform that accommodates all digital document types; no more web site
Kuokoa Networks (Santa Clara, CA)     also in Mumbai, India; no more web site
Lane15 Software (Austin, TX)  2000  22 IB management software; merged with InfiniSwitch in 2003 to become Fabric Networks: shuts its doors the same year
MarQlin (San Jose, CA)  1999   hard disk drive in a tiny one-inch form factor; no more web site in 2005
Matteris (Haifa, Israel)  2004   holographic media and drive; probably closed in 2010
Mempile (Jerusalem, Israel)  2000  27.6 single-disk 3D holographic technology with one terabyte capacity; apparently closed in 2009
Mendocino Software (Fremont, CA)  2003  33 CDP software; no more web site in 2008
Merlin Technologies (Burnaby, Canada)     3 NAS backup systems and NAS digital video recorder; supposed to move HQ to U.S; no more web site
Montilio (Chester, NH)  2003   formerly SiliconNetworks; PCI adapter to reduce file sever latency; R&D in Israel; web site closed in 2008
Movai Technologies (Denver, CO)  2005   Domodrive “to access to a private and guaranteed-secure mobile content environment”; no more web site in 2010
NanoMagnetics (Emersons, Bristol, UK)  1997  14.7 magnetic materials using protein ferritin-based technology to replace thin film technology used by disk drives; patents for sale in 2006
NBT Technology (San Francisco, CA)  2002  6.6 software to backup on WAN; seems to have merged with Riverbed: no more web site in 2006
NetCell (San Jose, CA)  1995  25.7 host adapter storage acceleration silicon devices for the ATA and SATA; no more web site in 2006
NetConvergence (Santa Clara, CA)  1998  5 iSCSI NIC products using its Matrix technology software; no more web site in 2006
NetDriven Solutions (Toronto, Canada)  1982   solution to automatically backup selected folders and files to NetDriven remote data center; no more web site in 2006
Netliant (Redwood City, CA)  1999   NetAccelerate software to encompass the complexity of selling enterprise solutions for storage, data networks, backup and security; no more web site
NetOctave (Morrisville, NC)  2000  23.4 network security processors for the IP storage market; spin-out from Celotek; no more web site in 2006
O-Mass (Oslo, Norway)  2000  12 developing a 1.2 TB and 64MB/s tape drive; Tandberg Data’s subsidiary; 12% owned by Imation; closed in 2009
Olocity (Golden, CO)  2005   open source storage management tools; raised $90,000; no more web site in 2010
OmegaBand (Austin, TX)  2000  9 IB/Ethernet gateway; other office in Herzliya, Israel; formerly Seagull; no more web site
Optilink (Malmö, Sweden)  1991  7 holographic card; R&D in Hungaria; no more web site in 2006
Optostor (Rätingen, Germany)  1999  3 holographic storage; no more web site in 2006
Optware (Yokohama, Japan)  1999  42.5 1TB holographic versatile disc; under Chapter XI in 2006; closed in 2010
Paceline Systems (Chelmsford, MA)  2000  21.5 IB network switching; no more web site
PetaLynx (San Jose, CA)  2001   chips for storage switches; no more web site in 2006
Platypus Technology (West Lebanon, NH)  1999  14 SSD drives; founded in Australia;  no more web site in 2004
PolarBlue Systems (Burnaby, BC, Canada)  2008   new generation of storage solutions (?); founded by former executives of Abatis and OctigaBay; no more web site in 2010
Polight Technologies (Cambridge, UK)  2000  5.4 holographic disk; spin-out from the University of Cambridge’s Chemistry Department; closed doors in 2003
PowerFile (Santa Clara, CA)  1998  14 DVD libraries; apparently closed in 2010
Pyxsys (Sudbury, MA)  2000   high-end NAS; no more web site in 2006
Quartet Network Storage (San Jose, CA)  2000   NAS appliance to increase performance, scalability and simplify management; established by Netcom Storage, Seoul, Korea; web site closed in 2004
Radiance Networks (Fremont, CA)  2001   building next-generation storage network solutions (?); also in Noida, India; no more web site
RELDATA (Parsippany, NJ)  2005   unified block and file storage solutions over iSCSI; $4 million was Series B funding in 2011, closed in 2012 and becoming Starboard Storage Systems
RioSpring (Milpitas, CA)  2002   one-inch hard disk drive manufactured by with GS-Magicstor; no more web site in 2007
SAN Valley Systems (Campbell, CA)  1999  60 IP-SAN gateway; cut half of its workforce; web site closed in 2006
Sandial Systems (Portsmouth, NH)  2000  65 bakbone switch; originally named Malachite Technology; dissolved in 2004
SANgate Systems (Southborough, MA)  2000  18 enterprise storage platform that supports both open systems and mainframe storage environments; Israeli investors; became Sepaton in virtual tape library appliance
SanOne (Phoenix, AZ)  1999   virtualization; Alanco’s company; out of business
Sanrise (Dublin, CA)  2000  203 former SSP; global storage software; filed for Chapter XI
Savantis Systems (Lexington, MA)  2000  5 switch to pool database servers; also in Herzaliya Pituach, Israel; former Bondera (?); web site closed in 2006
Scentric (Alpharetta, GA)  2004  17.4 data classification software; also in India; shut down in 2007
Seval Systems (Palo Alto, CA)  2007   IBM’s spin-off; new RAID architecure with two or three dimensional array or “cube” for video and streaming; in stealth mode; no more web site in 2010
Sherwood Information Partners (Westminster, CO)  2003  2 storage server for the video-on-demand industry; founded by former Xiotech employees; became Atrato
SmApper Technologies (Kufstein, Austria)  2005  10 appliance with FAN (File Area network) software; in stealth mode; no more web site in 2011
StarGen (Marlborough, MA)  1999   switch and bridge products; fabless company; no more web site in 2010
Storage Genetics (Longmont, CO)  2008   non-volatile memory technologies and systems for mobile, CE, and IT industries; no more web site  2010
Storage OS     no more web site in 2006
Storage Telecom (Paris, France)  2000  16 SSP and then more and more in storage software management, audit and conseil; closed
StorageFlow Systems (Vancouver, BC,Canada)  2001   SSP and disaster recovery solutions; formerly FiberQuest Networks; no more web site in 2006
StorageNetworks (USA)  1998  205 SSP; IPO in 2000 and raised $260 million, then closed; the biggest clash for a storage start-up
StoragePoint (San Diego, CA)  1998   offsite backup and data sharing; closed its doors in 2003
StorCard (San Jose, CA)  2001  14 smart card including a 100MB to 10GB floppy disk; closed in 2005
Storigen Systems (Lowell, MA)  2000  34.3 distributed storage system for enterprise and service-provider networks; probably closed in 2003
SV Systems     disaster recovery; probably disappear
Swarm Networks (Cupertino, CA)     file storage that installs as an appliance and grows without increase in system administration resources (?); also known as TeraCentral (?); no more web site in 2004
Syred Data Systems (Howell, NJ)  1992   CloudStor, virtualization and data management software; company moved from France to U.S.; no more web site in 2005
TeraChip (Palo Alto, CA)  2000  19.7 switch fabric for SAN and MAN; also in Lod, Israel; no more web site in 2007
TFStor (Denver, CO)  2008   NAS filer to optimize and simplify tiered storage environments; no more web site in 2011
Times N Systems (Austin, TX)  1999  15.7 software to virtualize SAN, NAS and DAS; no more web site in 2006
Toda Citron Technologies (Milpitas, CA)     microdisks; no more web site
Trilliant Group (Lebanoni, OH)     consulting services on ILM; no more web site in 2010
TrueSAN Networks (San Jose, CA)  1999  35 software solution combining storage virtualization, network/device management and SRM; closed in 2003
Virtual Storage (Denver, CO)  2004   VStore or virtualization storage appliance founded by former employees of StorageTek; no more web site in 2010
Vivastar (Cham-Zug, Switzerland)  1997   CD-R and DVD-R discs; closed in 2002
VoDisk     storage servers growing to TB capacity and providing TB/s of I/O bandwidth; no more web site
Vyant Technologies (Reston, VA)  1999   backup and data recovery software; no more web site in 2006
web Office (Austin, TX)  2000   storage appliances for long-distance connections between SAN using TCI/IP; no more web site in 2010
web2Storage  (Seattle, WA)     software for Windows Vista users to secure, remote, and access to their data at home or from anywhere with Internet; no more website in 2010
Weema Technologies (Cambridge, MA)     streaming media technologies that simplify the creation, delivery and storage of rich media over Internet; shut down business in 2001
Wincom Systems (San Jose, CA)  2000  32.9 switching server that enhances the performance of data storage servers connected to intranets and the Internet; shuts down operations in  2003
Z-Force (Laguna Hills and Santa Clara, CA)  1999  16 “file switch” for NAS; no more web site in 2004; became Attune
Zambeel (Fremont, CA)  1999  65 NAS up to 200TB with switching fabric; closed in 2003; StorAD, heavily
stocked with former Zambeel executives, bought Zambeel’s IP out of
bankruptcy, then changed its name to Agami Systems in 2004
Zetera (Irvine, CA)
 2002  28.5 low cost controller-less IP storage system; probably closed in 2010
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