SANgate Tries Again: Page 2 of 3

But the SANgate S2100, which will be competing with a long line of products already shipping, has yet to even reach beta. Feresten says the company is currently in the process of recruiting beta customers and that it expects to start testing by midsummer.

He insists that, while companies like Quantum Corp. (NYSE: DSS) are already shipping disk-backup systems that emulate tape, SANgate’s new appliance will be well worth the wait (see Quantum Digs Into Disk Backup). No one else in the industry can emulate a variety of tape libraries simultaneously in a single appliance, he says: "Customers don’t just have one type of tape library."

IDC analyst Rick Villars says he’s not familiar with SANgate’s new product, but that it sounds like the company is at least in tune with industry trends. High-performance disk-based data protection and backup, he says, "is an excellent path to be pursuing right now."

However, given the company's lack of success with its first product, it's hard to tell whether its second will do any better. SANgate has yet to find its first customer for the SANblaster 1000, an out-of-band data-migration appliance it started shipping in July 2002. Feresten says the company is in discussions with five or six potential customers, and he expects to have a signed contract in hand by the end of this quarter. "Things have been moving a bit more slowly than we would have liked," he concedes. "But now things are looking optimistic. All signs are very positive."

Well, not all the signs have been positive: As part of a "realignment" this January, the startup laid off 22 employees at its Israeli R&D facility -- and has subsequently cut the four remaining staffers in Israel. SANgate, based in Southborough, Mass., now employs 21 people, 16 of whom are engineers. "We’re right about the right headcount now to get this done," Feresten says (see SANgate Shuts Israel R&D).