Six storage companies to watch
by: Deni Connor
Issue: July 24, 2006

Managing unstructured data, data duplication among hot areas.

The number of enterprise network-oriented start-ups has been dwindling, though storage is one segment of the industry where plenty of newcomers have popped up and continue to emerge. Some have been snapped up by larger companies such as CA and EMC over the past year, and a few have even dared to go public, while others are still going it alone as they focus on areas such as wide-area file services, data deduplication, security, change management and virtual tape.

In researching this story, analysts and others also pointed us to these two independent storage companies that, while not start-ups, are worth watching:

Company: Asigra

Founded: April 1986

Based: Toronto

Primary business: Televaulting remote office backup service.

Why it is worth watching: Companies are paying more attention to data protection at remote and branch offices where IT expertise is limited. With its managed service, Asigra differs from companies such as Disksites, Tacit Networks (acquired by Packeteer) and Riverbed that rely on WAFS technology. Competes with other service providers such as Iron Mountain (which acquired Connected and LiveVault), and with Arsenal Digital Solutions. Asigra's service backs up Unix, Linux, NetWare, Windows and VMware, as well as Lotus Notes, Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange and Oracle software.

How the company got its start: It was founded by David Farajun after he lost a large volume of business data. He wrote the software to back up the data on desktops and laptops.

Funding: Privately funded

CEO: David Farajun

Who's using the product: Amerivault, HP, Bell Canada, U.S. Air Force, JetBlue and the Red Cross.

How the company got its name: From the Latin asigura, meaning insurance.

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