The standards approach to SRM has gained steam in recent months, and AppIQ has turned its early SMI-S support into OEM deals with HP, Hitachi, Engenio Information Technologies Inc., Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) (NYSE: SGI), and Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW). (See HP OEMs AppIQ SRM, AppIQ & Engenio Join for Software, and Sun Shines on AppIQ.)
CreekPath hung back from SMI-S initially, and at least one analyst says it hurt the firm. Ive always thought theyve had a pretty good approach, but they havent had been able to get any traction like AppIQ and others, says John Webster of Data Mobility Group. Theyve been slow to get on board with SMI-S. They resisted that whole movement, and its cost them.
Davis says CreekPath plans to undergo SNIAs Conformance Testing Program for storage management applications this year, but its already behind in the game: AppIQ, EMC, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Sun, Computer Associates International Inc. (CA) (NYSE: CA), Crosswalk Inc., and Veritas Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) have passed the test (see SNIA Releases Client Conformance).
Can Davis pull off a turnaround at CreekPath? Its hard to judge his track record, because he has none as a CEO. Most of his jobs have been in marketing and product development. In between early stints at Sun and Storage Technology Corp. (StorageTek) (NYSE: STK) and his most recent position as marketing VP of virtualization startup vendor MonoSphere Inc., Davis worked at ConvergeNet, Evolve Software, and Candera -- companies with checkered histories.
Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL) acquired early storage virtualization startup ConvergeNet for $332 million in 1999 in an early attempt to get into storage, but ended up scrapping the technology and partnering with EMC. Project management software vendor Evolve went public in 2000, but sold off its assets after filing for Chapter 11 protection in 2003. Davis joined storage controller startup Candera in 2001 when it was known as Confluence Networks and left in 2003 before it started shipping its wares (see Startup: 'Shut Up!' ). Candera folded in January (see Candera's Closed).
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