Coldago has named 15 storage unicorns – startups valued more than $1bn. That’s three more than when the research firm last compiled this list six months ago.
This update on Coldago’s January 2020 league table sees Datrium, Nasuni and VAST Data entering for the first time. However, Datrium’s appearance will be short-lived as it is in the process of being acquired by VMware.
Coldago’s storage unicorn line-up is:
- Acronis – data protection integrated with security
- Actifio – copy data and secondary data management
- Barracuda Networks – security and protection and owned by private equity
- Cohesity – backup and secondary data management adding file services
- Datrium – HCI and disaster recovery as a service
- DDN – HPC and enterprise block, file and object storage
- Druva – data protection as a service with edge, data centre and in-cloud support
- Infinidat – high end enterprise storage arrays using disk base and memory caching
- Kaseya – IT infrastructure management and storage vendor based on acquisitions
- Nasuni – cloud file storage services and collaboration,
- Qumulo – scale-out filer software
- Rubrik – backup and secondary data management
- VAST Data – single-tier QLC flash-based storage array with smart software
- Veeam Software – data protection with core virtual server offering moving enterprise and cloudwards
- Veritas Technologies – acquired and then spun-out data protection and storage management vendor owned by private equity
Actifio, Cohesity and Rubrik form a secondary data management supplier group.
Acronis, Druva, Veeam and Veritas are a data protection quartet, Cohesity and Rubrik use data protection to fuel their secondary data management ambitions and Barracuda also has data protection functionality. Actifio also uses backup as data fuel. It says it pioneered the concept of re-using the backups for various use cases and all of its customers use Actifio for backups.
DDN, Infinidat and VAST Data share a focus on hardware and enterprise storage arrays. VC-funded Infindat and VAST Data are startups with a singular focus on arrays while privately-owned DDN has expanded beyond its HPC roots to move into enterprise storage arrays via acquiring Tintri, Nexenta and WD’s Intelliflash business.
Kaseya is a mini-conglomerate that has grown rapidly through acquisitions such as Unitrends, Spanning Cloud Apps, RapidFire Tools, IT Glue, ID Agent and BullPhish ID. Unitrends and Spanning both supply data protection.
Nasuni started out as cloud file gateway supplier offering file collaboration services. It has grown into a public cloud file services vendor and aims to replace on-premises NAS filers.
Qumulo is also in the filer business, but offering scale-out, on-premises hardware and software originally. It now has more of a software and cloud focus.
Coldago suggested in January 2020 that Actifio could IPO in the next few quarters. The Covid-19 pandemic has probably put a spanner in those works.
