StorSimple Named To Leading Industry Analyst Firm "Cool Vendor" List

SANTA CLARA, Calif.(BUSINESS WIRE) StorSimple, today announced it has been selected as part of the list of "Cool Vendors in Storage Technologies, 2010," published April 2, 2010 by Gartner, Inc. StorSimple, which up until now has been operating in stealth mode, has developed an application-optimization hybrid storage controller that enables enterprises to easily and securely integrate public and private cloud storage services with their existing on-premise deployments of mainstream enterprise applications. "By providing an easy on-ramp to cloud storage for application specific requirements, StorSimple aims to change the game by bringing the operational benefits of the cloud to applications deployed within an enterprise data-center. Stay tuned."

"We believe StorSimple's inclusion in Gartner's Cool Vendor report is confirmation of the enterprise customer's need for StorSimple's hybrid storage controller. StorSimple's solution is optimized for applications like SharePoint, Exchange, Windows User Files & Virtual Machines and delivers consistent storage performance at scale, significantly simplifies data protection and significantly reduces cost over traditional enterprise storage used with these applications," said Ursheet Parikh, CEO and co-founder of StorSimple. "By providing an easy on-ramp to cloud storage for application specific requirements, StorSimple aims to change the game by bringing the operational benefits of the cloud to applications deployed within an enterprise data-center. Stay tuned."

StorSimple was founded in May 2009 by serial entrepreneurs and storage networking and WAN optimization leaders Guru Pangal, president and Ursheet Parikh, CEO. Prior to co-founding StorSimple Guru Pangal held GM and VP of Engineering roles at Brocade. Guru joined Brocade through the acquisition of Rhapsody Networks, which he founded. Prior to co-founding StorSimple Ursheet Parikh had driven cross functional execution for Cisco's WAN Application Acceleration Service (WAAS) business from concept to #1 market share leadership in three years.

"StorSimple's team of storage veterans recognizes that data-integrity and data-availability triumph all features in a data storage product. We are taking a very pragmatic execution approach that preserves all existing IT investment and leverages the existing enterprise eco-system, so that we can focus on the few things that we do well. In my 25 years in the storage industry, the engineering team at StorSimple is the best team that I have seen. I am geeked," said Guru Pangal, StorSimple, President and co-founder. In June of 2009, StorSimple closed an $8 million Series A led by Satish Dharamraj of Redpoint Ventures and Bernard Dalle of Index Ventures. Jayshree Ullal, CEO of Arista Networks and Mike Volpi of Index Ventures also joined Ursheet, Guru, Satish and Bernard on StorSimple's Board of Directors.

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn't do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business; Intriguing, have caught Gartner's interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months. Gartner's listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.