StorageWay plans to use this funding to expand its service offerings, build the second generation of its Liquid Architecture technology, and extend its network infrastructure.
The second-generation system will enable enterprises paying for its service to share applications over the shared infrastructure, as well as sharing physical storage space. Like the storage virtualization service, it will be sold on a pay-as-you-grow basis.
Its also worth noting that Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) was an early investor in StorageWay and that a number of senior executives from Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU) -- including Rob Farris, who was VP of Lucents service provider business, and J. Kim Fennall, senior executive of Lucents spinoff Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV) -- formed StorageWay.
The trouble is, there are so many of these SSPs it's unlikely they'll all survive. StorageNetworks Inc. (Nasdaq: STOR), Sanrise Inc., Scale Eight Inc., WorldStor Inc., Storage Telecom, and Storability Inc., to name a few, are all after this market (see Storage Services Sprout in Europe). One advantage StorageWay clearly has over the others now is plenty of money.
But its easy to see why theres so much activity here: Analysts are predicting a top prize.
Salomon Smith Barney
predicts the SSP market will exceed $8 billion in 2003 and account for 25 percent of the market for storage products. IDC predicts the market for storage "utilities" will reach $5.5 billion in 2003. Thus, StorageWay and its competitors have plenty of pie to slice.