These 10 data storage startups are tackling disaster recovery and archiving, data protection, and fast, secure file sharing, plus lowering the cost and improving performance of cloud-based tape libraries.
The data storage industry is in the midst of a major transition from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud. For example, research firm IDC reported in late October that spending on compute and storage infrastructure products for cloud deployments, including dedicated and shared IT environments, rose 7.9% year over year to $24.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023, while spending on non-cloud infrastructure fell 8.3% to $14.4 billion.
In fact, according to IDC, global enterprise infrastructure spending on non-cloud deployments will decline from 41.0% in 2022 to 30.6% by 2027.
[Related: Storage 100: The Digital Bridge Between The Cloud And On-Premises Worlds]
As data storage spending continues to shift from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud, it’s only natural that new entrants to the storage market are gravitating towards more niche areas of the business, particularly technologies aimed at making it easier for business users and consumers to find better ways to store and manage their data.
Many of the storage market’s newest startups embody that transition. Our list of storage startups for the first half of 2024 includes companies developing new ways to recover from IT disasters, increase the performance and ease of file transfers, improve file sync and sharing, better protect data, and even make it easier to move tape backup and archive data to the cloud. And these startups are increasingly using AI to build their technology.
CRN profiles 10 startups that are bringing new storage capabilities to market and aiming to become a bigger part of the business in the future.
Alpio
Co-Founder and CEO: Doug Newman
Headquarters: Durham, North Carolina
Arpio develops disaster recovery technology for Amazon Web Services environments. The company promises full recovery of a customer’s entire AWS operating environment, including infrastructure and data, regardless of architecture. This includes virtualized, containerized, and serverless workloads and their managed data services. Arpio supports over 100 AWS resources across about 30 services. In terms of security, Arpio is SOC 2 certified and HIPAA compliant. While Arpio has been available to enterprise customers for several years, the company only closed an $8.2 million seed funding round last year, led by S3 Ventures and Companion Ventures.
Atom Beam
Chairman and CEO: Charles Yeomans
Headquarters: Moraga, California
AtomBeam says it is developing technology to reduce the amount of data needed to store and transmit even the smallest messages that cannot be compressed. Its Neurpac platform uses AI and machine learning to automatically generate and deploy codewords used as more efficient representations of data sent from the edge to the cloud, reducing bandwidth by up to 75%. Later this year, AtomBeam plans to release Neurcom, a neural net AI that enhances video and audio codecs to increase data throughput while preserving image and audio functionality. The company is raising funds using equity crowdfunding.
Occupational Safety and Health
chairman: Nicholas Zardastani
Headquarters: Manchester, United Kingdom
CESS (Cumulus Encrypted Storage System) creates a blockchain-powered decentralized storage and content delivery network infrastructure. Users and creators can use the platform to share on-chain data, and builders can develop and deploy decentralized applications. CESS provides optimized Web3 technology for storing and retrieving high-frequency dynamic data while ensuring data sovereignty and full user privacy. The decentralized physical infrastructure network model allows network nodes to be deployed at scale across the globe.
Cloud IBR
Founder and CEO: Gregory Terrone
Headquarters: Woodbury, New York
Cloud IBR provides an automated, one-click disaster recovery SaaS platform for Veeam backups stored in Backblaze or Wasabi object storage. Recover mission-critical data during ransomware attacks and provide failover for Veeam backups stored offsite in Backblaze or Wasabi object storage. With one click, you can create on-demand bare-metal cloud server and storage infrastructure as needed post-incident or for compliance testing, with no capital expenditures required.
Ctrl+Z
owner: Roberto Morellato
Headquarters: Bolzano, Italy
Ctrl+Z offers a range of services to help you store and manage your activities in the cloud. Their technology makes it easy to access your data from anywhere, anytime. The company develops specific applications and all-in-one services to serve the cloud storage needs of businesses. Their platform integrates with existing workflows, allowing users to share data with each other and automate work processes.
Enterglia Systems
Co-Founder and CEO: Joseph DeAngelo
Headquarters: Mount Laurel, New Jersey
Entegria Systems is a software development company specializing in digital file management with encryption, compliance and Internet technologies in mind. The company’s product line includes RheoWorx, a secure data workflow system that enables companies to build automated processes for data movement, and FastSSR, software for fast, secure TCPIP mainframe file transfers.
Flex Tech
President and CEO: Yuto Sueki
Headquarters: Tokyo
Flextech is the owner and developer of TeraBox, a provider of cloud storage services. The company claims that TeraBox already has over 250 million registered users and over 20 million daily active users worldwide. TeraBox stores data using SSL protocols, encryption algorithms, and access controls to ensure secure transmission and storage of sensitive information, as well as client-side endpoint encryption and a massively distributed system to maintain security and privacy of sensitive data.
Geyser Data
Co-Founder and CEO: Nelson Nahum
Headquarters: Tustin, California
Geyser, which only launched earlier this year, has already brought to market Geyser Tape-as-a-Service Archive. The application enables companies to store S3-compatible backup and archive data that would normally be stored on tape in the cloud using Microsoft Azure or AWS. Geyser’s service retrieves the data at no additional cost. The company has partnered with Spectra Logic’s Spectra Cube cloud-optimized tape library to create an object-based tape system.
Slick
Co-founders: Arpit and Charvi Agarwal
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Slik is the creator of Slik Safe, a fast file management tool with on-device AI and end-to-end encryption. Slik Safe provides decentralized, encrypted file backup and sync with encryption for file search and access. Corporate files and folders are backed up with the ability to store and share those files, and data is protected locally on the device with encryption before being uploaded to the cloud.
Still Image Web
Founder and CEO: Amit Srivastava
Headquarters: Mumbai, India
StillsWeb develops technology aimed at helping businesses store, organize, and regularly share large amounts of images. The company goes beyond providing a cloud storage platform and adds advanced security and proofing features as a service. Backup copies of all uploaded images are stored on geographically distributed servers for recovery in case of disaster. Images can be organized in visually appealing portfolio pages or client galleries, and online and offline images can be synchronized.
