iVivity Nets $26 Million for Storage on a Chip

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iVivity’s backers have stepped up with $26 million to help the intelligent storage networking company bring its products to market.

The third-round funding was led by new investors Grotech Capital Group and JK&B Capital. Mellon Ventures was also a new investor to the round, which
included previous investors H.I.G. Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, Cordova Ventures, Yamacraw, and Bergman and Associates.
The round brings iVivity’s total funding to date to more than $50 million.

iVivity CEO David Coombs says the funding round “marks a major milestone for iVivity as we transition our focus from research and development to delivering the products and services to our customers that will permit them to take full advantage of our revolutionary iDiSX technology.”

$26 million seems like a lot for a start-up waiting for its first OEM deal, but Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst of the Taneja Group, says he
thinks iVivity’s backers made the right move.

“VCs are making second- or third-round decisions these days based upon a reevaluation of the business opportunity from the ground up, as they should, I believe,” Taneja told Enterprise Storage Forum. “Where they see a good probability of success, they are bringing in a new lead investor and pitching in. Otherwise, they are letting the company die or are selling it at fire sale prices.”

“iVivity’s chip is late to market, as were all other storage network processors from the likes of Aarohi, Aristos Logic, Astute, and others, but they have been getting enough interest from their potential OEMs that the VCs want the product completed and brought to market,” Taneja says. “That is the reason for this round. I think it was the right thing to do, given the signs these guys are getting from their potential OEMs.”

iVivity says its iDiSX intelligent “storage server on chip” processor is built for cost-effective solutions development, allowing network storage vendors to add high-end storage functionality while reducing overall costs in their solutions portfolio. iDiSX offers functionality such as the ability to consolidate multiple applications onto a single platform, massive scalability, complete system redundancy, and advanced software for point-in-time copying and replication services.

The company says iDiSX will eliminate the need for system OEMs to undertake new ASIC and infrastructure software developments so they can focus on developing new applications and functionality. iDiSX allows storage applications to reside on the silicon. It can terminate and initiate all SCSI-based protocols, including iSCSI and FC, at up to 10Gbps line rate and can control I/O across disk interconnects like FC, Serial ATA (SATA), and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS).

“The storage industry has long needed the development and roll out of next generation storage networking processors such as iVivity’s iDiSX,” Taneja says. “With the increased introduction of IP storage and multi-protocol platforms into performance applications, the time has come for this level of functionality and programmability to be available to OEMs who are designing the next generation of storage switches and boxes.”

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Paul Shread
Paul Shread
eSecurity Editor Paul Shread has covered nearly every aspect of enterprise technology in his 20+ years in IT journalism, including an award-winning series on software-defined data centers. He wrote a column on small business technology for Time.com, and covered financial markets for 10 years, from the dot-com boom and bust to the 2007-2009 financial crisis. He holds a market analyst certification.

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