At DataCore, the momentum continues to be strong. Acquisitions, a new investor and expansion of the product offering are helping to perfect the DataCore.NEXT vision. “What’s next?” you might ask. We recently spoke with CEO Dave Zabrowski about the company’s positioning.
Under Zabrowski’s leadership, the company is centered around what is known as the DataCore.NEXT vision. This focuses on bridging the gap between the core (on-premises), cloud, and edge. Organizations should be able to manage data effectively wherever it resides. The original SANsymphony product, focused on block storage, gets considerable traction in that mission by creating a data pool from on-premises and cloud sources.
Moreover, with Swarm for object storage, OpenEBS for container-native storage for Kubernetes, and AI+ for data from AI applications, there are additional capabilities to complete the story for now. However, Zabrowski notes that DataCore is at the beginning of a new era.
Storage moves with the market
With the explosive growth in data now and in the coming years, as far as Zabrowski is concerned, DataCore has a golden future. He refers to the expected global volume of 175 zettabytes of data next year. A zettabyte is not a common term – it is equivalent to one billion terabytes. The amount of data will only continue to grow at a very rapid rate, doubling approximately every 14 months. This creates an opportunity for DataCore as a Software-Defined Storage (SDS) vendor to address enterprise challenges. They have all sorts of new issues around security and compliance. For example, companies in Europe are facing requirements from the NIS2 directive, on their way to cyber resilience.
DataCore wants to anticipate these changes and align its product offerings with the new issues and requirements. An excellent way to demonstrate this was to launch a tool around the NIS2 deadline in mid-October to aid compliance. By developing these tools, Zabrowski sees DataCore building a product offering in which companies can have confidence. This means, for example, that the solutions not only help manage data securely, but also make it available and scalable anywhere without losing control of compliance. With the help of SDS, users are then assured of a solid infrastructure that keeps up with trends and challenges.
Tip: NIS2 compliance is the beginning, better security the goal
Zabrowski shows stability
We find that in addition to the topic of innovation, Zabrowski also likes to talk about DataCore’s performance. By sharing the results, he shows that DataCore is a reliable business storage provider. According to the CEO, his company is characterized by financial stability and growth. The company recently completed its fifteenth consecutive year of profitability. However, a new foundation has been laid in recent years through a new revenue model. Whereas previously, revenue was generated from one-time customer purchases, there is now a model whereby recurring revenue comes in annually. Customers then don’t have to make a large investment all at once and can scale the technology more efficiently.
At DataCore, those cash flows go back into research and development and acquisitions. For example, the capabilities of Swarm, OpenEBS, and AI+ come from acquisitions. DataCore also gets support from lead investor Insight Partners, which has $100 billion in assets under management spread across several companies. Despite its profitability, such an investor must have enough money for expansion.
Zabrowski, therefore, convinces customers and resellers using numbers. For him, customer satisfaction is a key pillar, and the company achieves a 93 percent retention rate and maximum satisfaction score. Zabrowski emphasizes that DataCore provides customers with direct support for this without much intervention from standard customer service. A team of engineers is always available, contributing to high customer satisfaction.
Each country has a technical expert who switches immediately in case of issues. Further switching to a domain expert is always possible should the issue be too specific. Such a domain expert is then familiar with SANsymphony, Swarm or OpenEBS. In this way, a customer should always get the right help.
Customized data management
For Zabrowski, it is clear that with the base present and the data explosion, there are opportunities in all scenarios: core, cloud, and edge. On the one hand, this is prompted by the fact that data is also moving more between environments. A reverse migration occurs when companies move their data, which has been moved to the cloud, back to on-premises environments. This requires a broad data management approach such as SDS.
On the other hand, now and in the future, the edge is an interesting location for companies to secure data. At the edge of the network, a lot of data is generated by edge devices, and the growth is not out of that for the time being. In edge scenarios, keeping data at the edge is usually the most efficient, with an eye on possible analytics and privacy.
With supporting core, cloud, and edge, it is also crucial for DataCore to keep its eyes open for new use cases. In this area, the storage company is keeping a close eye on AI so it can anticipate correctly. To capitalize on AI, DataCore now has AI+, as mentioned above. This technology is based on Workflow Intelligence Nexus (WIN), acquired late last year, which makes software for intelligent data management and AIOps. The technology functions in the AI application layer, retrieving data to store and process. This very AI scenario requires a focused approach, as applications generate mountains of different data types.
What’s next?
The expansions over the years have led to a broader approach with additional core products. In this, an acquisition strategy is crucial – buying a proven technology lets a tech vendor move with the latest trends. The price tag for such an acquisition is often hefty. That’s why DataCore raised $60 million from a new investor, Vistara Growth, earlier this year. This keeps the financials in order and provides funds to continue investing in product development and personnel.
All in all, DataCore is well-positioned in the storage market with its expanding strategy. By focusing on the challenges and opportunities of data growth, regulation, and technological complexity, DataCore continues to gain traction. With its SANsymphony, Swarm, OpenEBS, and AI+ products, the company aims to address the current needs of modern organizations. These organizations desire secure and scalable storage, as well as flexibility and efficiency. Therefore, with an SDS as a foundation, we are curious to see the next step for DataCore.