Searching For New Data Storage Solutions
Posted on: Tuesday, 5 August 2003, 06:00 CDT
The five Virginia Tech graduates had landed jobs at IBM, General Motors, Intel and Hewlett Packard when each decided independently to return to Blacksburg and work for a small startup company.
Although startup dot-com businesses were going belly-up at about that time, the five engineers still left the biggies to sign on with Intransa Inc.
"It was good enough that it was time for us to jump ship from where we were," Tom Brooks said.
"We didn't think it was going to flop, is what it comes down to," Kevin Paar said.
Paar and Mark Cherbaka are senior engineers with Intransa. Henry Green is a hardware engineering manager, while Paul McFall and Brooks are digital systems design engineers. Their office is at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center.
The company was founded late in 2000 to develop data storage solutions for information technology groups. It has secured $40 million in funding from 3Com, Advanced Technology Ventures, Sofinnova Ventures, Sofinnova Partners and US Venture Partners.
When a company needs more data storage than a computer hard drive can handle, it moves to a storage area network, "basically a box that has a lot of hard drives in it and some software to manage all of them," Brooks explained.
Until now, most networks have used fiber cable to transmit company data to a storage center. This can be expensive and not reproducible since different companies have their own network versions.
In April, Intransa brought to market a storage system using existing Ethernet and Internet protocol networks. In June, it announced its first customer, BlueStar Solutions, a California- based provider of information technology services. Bill Augustadt, its vice president and chief technical officer, said Intransa's use of the existing network for storage makes its product more accessible and keeps costs down.
BlueStar Solutions is one of the companies that first tested the Intransa technology, along with the University of Michigan and 3Com.
The system is easier to install because it uses existing systems, requires less administration and can be located wherever a business needs it, Brooks said.
It places the storage management function in the network itself. Its graphic management tool lets customers manage an Intransa system from any Windows-based work station in the network.
This approach makes the whole system cheaper, said Cherbaka. It is also easier to install and administer, said Green. "It's one of those things . . . 'Why didn't I think of that?' " Brooks said.
Intransa's IP5000 Storage System is made up of a storage controller that runs its software and a disk enabler that handles an array of disk drives.
Other data storage companies are starting to take that approach, but Intransa is further along with its product, Brooks said.
"We're essentially talking about leveraging what customers already have," Green said. "When you need more storage, you just add more boxes." He compared it to the evolution from old mainframe computers to PCs, moving from the older refrigerator-size data storage boxes to distributed storage.
The cost of the system is about 20 percent of most fiber versions. A unit with 3.2 terabytes of capacity sells for $62,500.
Peter Wang, company founder and chief technical officer, recruited each of the five engineers through a Virginia Tech faculty member.
The company's marketing and software people are in San Jose, Calif., while all five members of its engineering team are in Blacksburg. The locations on opposite coasts, Brooks said, are "basically because Silicon Valley is out there, and we wanted to live in Blacksburg."
On the Web: www.intransa.com
Paul Dellinger: (276) 228-4752,
paul.dellinger@roanoke.com
Intransa Inc.
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.
Blacksburg employees: 5
Funding: $40 million from sources including 3Com, Advanced Technology Ventures and US Venture Partners
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