After keeping its head down for two and a half years, storage processor startup iVivity Inc. today announced that it has raised $13 million in a second round of funding and has recruited storage vet David Coombs as its president and CEO (see iVivity Lands $13M and a CEO).
But will fresh dough and a new CEO be enough to help iVivity break out of the pack in this still-competitive area? And will the transition to 10-Gbit/s storage networks happen fast enough -- that is, while the startup still has money in the bank?
The inside round, which brings iVivity to around $24 million in total funding, came from previous investors LSI Logic Corp., HIG Capital, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Kinetic Ventures, Cordova Ventures, and Bergman & Associates, headed by Bruce Bergman, iVivitys chairman and former CEO of Brocade Communications Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCD).
Zulfiqar Qazilbash, iVivity co-founder and chief strategy officer, says the company is aiming to deliver wire-speed application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that can perform so-called intelligent services -- such as provisioning, quality of service, and snapshots -- for 10-Gbit/s Fibre Channel or Ethernet storage networks. Its designing chips for the target side, so iVivity is pitching its silicon to switch and appliance vendors.
"We think the problem of putting intelligence in the data path will be solved by the storage guys," he says. "Were skeptical of the networking folks."
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