Seven Ten Braces for Challengers

Among the many startups seeking attention in the data managment space, at least one is readying its third-generation package.

Seven Ten Storage Software Inc. will launch StorFirst EAS 3.0 in late September, beefing up security and migration policies for its data management software.

Seven Ten CEO Jim Moulton says the new version will add support for disk-based WORM and expand its retention policies and reporting features, which are geared to helping differentiate Seven Ten from a host of players new and old.

By all accounts, data management across tiered storage is still getting going, and many so-called trends are largely figments of the marketing imagination. Still, that doesnt mean there aren’t any competitors. Like Seven Ten, Arkivio Inc., KOM Networks Inc., and Signiant Corp. have been shipping products for years (see Arkivio Lifts Lid on Automation, Qwest Suspends Daily Stock Sales, and Signiant Moves Data Faster).

The advent of Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) and its endorsement by the likes of EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), however, has stirred activity -- and awareness -- to a new level, even if the industry hasn’t even settled on a name for the category yet. Some call it data management, some call it data classification, and others information access management.“I’ll let you guys decide what category we go in,” says Moulton, who describes Seven Ten’s value as “moving data to the right storage devices. We want to identify where a volume needs to go, and put it on the right media at the right time. Our engineers have been working on this for a long time.”

So have a slew of others, at a range of startups. Seven Ten's upgrade comes as newer players such as Kazeon Inc., Njini Inc., and StoredIQ are just dipping their toes in the water, and still-stealthy Scentric Inc. prepares to dip its toes (see Peekaboo, StoredIQ!, Kazeon Comes Out, and Njini's Out of the Bottle).

“We actually ship products, and some of them don’t,” Moulton sniffs. “We don’t consider them competitors until they ship. I guess as far as press competition and word-of-mouth competition and VC competition, they’re competitors. But they’re really not competing yet.”

”It’s an increasingly crowded space, and a lot of people are scrambling for differentiation here,” says analyst Brad O’Neill of Taneja Group consultancy.

As Seven Ten plans a fresh assault, Moulton et al plan to resist being jostled from their hard-earned stake. “A lot of people don’t know who we are, but we’re partnering and making strides in the right areas,” Moulton says. “EMC and StorageTek know about us. Medical imaging and financial imaging companies know about us.” In all, Moulton claims Seven Ten has signed 200 customers in two years of shipping its software.Moulton says the startup booked over $250,000 in revenue in July alone. Most of its revenue comes from partnerships with the likes of EMC, StorageTek, and medical imaging vendor Agfa Corp. Customers include American Express (NYSE: AXN), ETrade, The Smithsonian Institution, and the U.S. Dept. of Treasury.

The Lawrence, Mass.-based firm, founded in 2001, has something else that distinguishes it, besides a working product -- it's self funded (see They Don't Need No Stinkin' VCs).

Moulton and his brother Bob, Seven Ten’s president and other founder, aren’t opposed to funding. They just haven’t met the right VCs yet, mainly because they don’t want to give up too much of their company to investors.

“We’ve looked. It’s been an ongoing process. We talked to a number of people, it just hasn’t worked out yet. Some offers we’ve turned down, but we keep our eyes open,” Moulton says.

Perhaps because of its roots, Seven Ten has kept things simple. The company started with four employees and now has 10. Seven of the employees are developers. Seven Ten has no sales force -- it sells through partnerships. That could present another challenge: Now that Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW) owns StorageTek, Moulton expects to have to do some relationship management to retain one key partner.The Moultons started Seven Ten along with CTO Dave Maxey, and EVP of operations Gary J. Lafreniere. The quartet worked at storage management company Smart Storage until it was bought in April 2001 by OTG Software, which in turn was acquired by Legato, which was bought by EMC.

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch