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Cereva's Back on Track: Page 3 of 4

The new round also indicates that investors have faith in Cereva's vision, despite its executive musical chairs and numerous tangles with the press -- including misrepresentations of its original trial customer lineup.

Back in May, for example, GiantLoop Network Inc. told Byte and Switch in no uncertain terms that despite Cereva's claims, it had no intention of trialing the startup's wares.

"Cereva's had some execution-related issues on multiple fronts," says Tony Prigmore, senior analyst at consultancy The Enterprise Storage Group Inc., "but they have reset their expectations, and with this round it looks like they're going to get to market."

The trek to success won't be easy. Among the chief competitors Cereva's facing is 3PARdata Inc., which recently announced new management, on top of its own $100 million round of funding from several influential strategic partners (see 3PARdata is Ready).

Prigmore warns that Cereva could face many more competitors as well. "There are number of companies involved in next-generation storage, some in stealth mode now," he says. Still, all of them, he maintains, will need plenty of funding to get to market.