TrelliSoft Goes for Gold

When Computer Associates International (NYSE: CA) completed its $4 billion acquisition of Platinum Technology in December 1999, Platinum's chief of technology, Stephen C. Donovan, had already launched a startup with the aim of achieving a similar goal.

Now, that company -- TrelliSoft Inc. -- looks as though its getting somewhere. It’s expecting to close a $5 million to $10 million first round of venture capital financing in the next few months, having existed on $2 million of seed money so far. And it appears to be positioned to ride a wave of renewed interest in storage resource management (SRM), a technology that aims to help users make more efficient use of their storage networks.

Donovan helped take Platinum public in 1991, and he also played a key role in developing its visualization software, which helps system managers keep tabs of the interaction between applications and databases. Both experiences are probably helping him at TrelliSoft, which claims to have the first Java-based SRM software.

SRM, by the way, helps organizations monitor how storage equipment is being used so that they can see when certain devices are maxing out, or conversely, are being under-utilized. TrelliSoft’s product -- StorageAlert -- goes further than this, offering capabilities such as capacity planning and billing.

TrelliSoft reckons there’s a lot of latent demand for its software. “Most of the time, organizations are spending tens of thousands of dollars implementing SAN and NAS technologies and then not using them efficiently,” says Theresa O’Neil, VP of marketing. “They still don’t have a clue who’s using the storage and in what quantities, or how much space is available on what drives.”Gartner/Dataquest projects that the worldwide market for storage management software will grow from $5.3 billion in 2000 to $16.7 billion in 2005. And the SRM sector is expected to get a hefty chunk of this. Gartner predicts it will reach $1.7 billion by 2003. Current SRM tool revenue is under $400 million, which leaves projected growth of well over $1 billion.

Such a big potential market, of course, has encouraged plenty of other players to jump on the bandwagon. Industry heavyweights like BMC Software Inc., CA, the Softek division of Fujitsu Ltd (KLS: FUJI.KL), and IBM Corp (NYSE: IBM) all offer some form of SRM, although none can drill down and provide as much detail as the likes of TrelliSoft, according to analysts.

A whole bunch of SRM startups have also emerged to keep TrelliSoft company. They include Arkeia, Trebia Networks Inc., and Astrum Software Corp., among others.

As Donovan managed to hire quite a few ex-Platinum execs, TrelliSoft probably stands as good a chance of any of these startups of hitting the SRM jackpot.

Right now, however, its product has its weaknesses. The ability to share data with other management systems is not available, which is a burden, as IT managers will have to keep the others up and running until all the data is migrated to the new system, which could take some time.Neither does the TrelliSoft platform plug into any of the major incumbents' gear, like CA's or IBM’s Tivoli software, which provide the overall IT systems management framework. However, TrelliSoft is reportedly in talks with BMC on how the two can work together on this front. All that O’Neil will say on this is "watch this space."

One SRM startup, HighGround Systems, has already been snapped up by a bigger fish, Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), in a $400 million acquisition last December.

“TrelliSoft could easily go the way of HighGround and others that have been bought by companies looking to provide a broader storage management solution…Look for TrelliSoft to become a formidable player in this market,” says Steve Duplessie, analyst at Enterprise Storage Group Inc.

— Jo Maitland, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch http://www.byteandswitch.com