Storage Startups Track Trends

Fall is nearly here, time to pack up the tent and head back to business. And time for a fresh take on our Top 10 Storage Startups to Watch.

In this quarterly feature, we showcase newcomers to the storage landscape that seem to be making headway in areas vital to the daily success of storage managers. It's not enough that companies be able to show milestones that hint at momentum. We also want to highlight firms whose goals keep pace with industry trends.

This go-round, for instance, we've profiled a number of companies engaged in virtualization. While Desktone, Qlusters, 3Leaf, and Trigence aren't storage companies per se, each has a product that directly affects the level and type of storage required in a given organization.

In the same vein,

Agite, Continuity Software, and Varonis are reporting tools, each focused on a key aspect of the IT infrastructure that incorporates storage.

The startups we've picked directly from the storage segment also are distinguished by having forward-looking takes on time-tested technologies -- Ocarina, on data compression; Pivot3, on RAID; and ProStor, on backup media.Virtualization, reporting tools, and new ways to store and manage data are all trends we see in full force. There are more, but you can't cover it all in one byte.

What's your take? Check out our list and get back to us on the message board, email, phone, whatever. We look forward to hearing from you.