Component startups just about make it on to the chart with a total of $54 million. The concern for these companies is whether the market will be big enough to support them when incumbents like Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) have divisions devoted to this sector.
All this raises the question of whether too much money has been allocated to this market. The table below shows how many companies are involved in each category. (Let us know if weve missed any!)
Market sector |
Total funding $millions |
Startups |
Components |
54 |
Silverback, Platis (bought by Adaptec), Trebia, Troika |
Software virtualization |
60 |
DataCore Software, Xiotech |
Transport (IP-centric) |
131 |
Nishan, San Valley |
Transport (FC and Gig E) |
144 |
Pirus, Sancastle, Andiamo (Cisco), Rhapsody, StoneFly, Maxxan, Sanera, Akara, Confluence |
Storage management |
150 |
StorageApps, Astrum Software, Neoscale, SANavigator, Prisa Networks, Terracloud, Trellisoft, Sangate |
Infiniband |
200 |
InfiniSwitch, Veio, Paceline Systems, Crossroads Systems, Lane15 Software, Mellanox, Baderacom |
Next Gen SAN and NAS appliances |
270 |
BlueArc, Panasas, Zambeel, Lefthand Networks, KOM Networks, StorAge, Intransa, SANgate Systems, Falconstor, Spinnaker Networks, Kashya, Storigen |
High performance storage systems |
303 |
3PARdata, Cereva, YottaYotta, TrueSAN |
Storage Service Providers |
542 |
Scale Eight, Storability, Storage Telecom, StorageNetworks, StorageAccess, WorldStor, Sanrise, StoreWay, ManagedStorage International, Skydesk, Arsenal Digital Solutions Worldwide, Callisma |
The herd mentality is well under way among investors, according to most analysts. We counted no fewer than 60 different venture capital companies that have invested in storage startups to date.