Data virtualisation startup Primary Data emerges from stealth mode to announces a celebrity hire-- Steve Wozniak, who leaves Fusion-io to "counsel Primary Data on technology vision and architecture."
Wozniak should feel right at home at Primary Data, as its co-founder and CTO is David Flynn, who co-founded Fusion-io and was its CEO until May 2013. Its CEO, Lance Smith, is also an ex-Fusion-io exec.
“Woz has a unique way of seeing the world through the eyes of both an engineer and a visionary, and his energy, curiosity, and excitement about technology is inspiring,” Smith says. “At Fusion-io, he helped us showcase the breakthroughs possible by adding flash in the enterprise, and we’re excited to have him on the team at Primary Data as we focus on how data virtualisation can deliver intelligent data mobility that evolves with the needs of modern enterprises.”
The hiring announcement also provided details on the Primary Data product offering-- an integrated platform virtualising all storage capacity, be it direct-attached storage, NAS and private/public clouds, into a single global data space. It does so by separating actual file data from the metadata describing it, allowing universal data access across all storage types and tiers, Primary Data says.
The platform consists of a Data Hypervisor (virtualises data by decoupling the access channel from the control channel), a Data Director (a central metadata server), Policy Engine (enables data management independent of storage) and a Global Dataspace (gives admins global visibility of all storage resources).
“Primary Data is a catalyst that makes the software-defined datacenter a reality,” Smith claims. “By virtualising data across a single global dataspace, enterprises can extract more performance from their infrastructure and easily scale with growth. Automated, policy-driven data placement enables IT to finally respond dynamically to business requirements in real time, delivering breakthrough agility that transforms today’s datacentres.”
Primary Data is currently working with early access partners, and should reveal more details on its product offering on 2015.
