Top Ten Private Storage Networking Companies: Page 2 of 23

Other key moves include a new entry at number ten from the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers portfolio. Zambeel Inc. is the first virtualization play on the list and has great credentials.

This spells bad news for Yotta Yotta though, which has been relegated to the Bit Bucket to make room for Zambeel. Sorry guys, that company song has got to go.

Creeping up the list to number six is 3PARdata Inc., having just scored a monstrous $100 million in third-round funding. This has naturally catapulted it up ahead of rival Cereva Networks Inc., which slips down to the number seven spot.

And that’s it for this week – if you are still on the list you can breathe again, for the time being! Anyone who feels misunderstood, use the message boards to explain why. The companies we are picking are those that we think are the most likely to make it through this economic slump to a fat IPO or a nice juicy acquisition.

How do we choose these outfits? Successful startups have three things in common: strong technology, smart money, and proven management. What you see here is our pick of the ten companies that most evince these qualities in the storage networking market.