Nirvanix is an American-based provider of business phone systems, VoIP services, hosted PBX, SIP Trunks, and cloud storage services headquartered in San Diego, California, United States.[1] The company offers a variety of business phone solutions[buzzword] for small, medium as well as enterprise businesses. It also has a strong presence in public, hybrid and private cloud storage services with usage-based pricing.[1] Based on previous service companies founded in 1998, Nirvanix shut down in October 2013.[2][3] In July 2021 Nirvanix re-entered the business with $12 million funding.[4]
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Information management |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California, USA |
| Services | Business Phone Systems |
| Website | techcrunch |
History
editStreamload, founded in 1998 in San Diego, California by Steve Iverson, a student at Pomona College, was one of the first Internet storage services, receiving various accolades for products between 2002 and 2006.[5][6][7] The company attracted angel investor and computer software entrepreneur Charlie Jackson and $1.2 million in investment by August 2004.[8]
Streamload's flagship product was renamed to MediaMax and spun off on July 1, 2007, with the existing company being renamed to Nirvanix.[8][9] The failure of MediaMax (renamed to The Linkup) on August 8, 2008, resulted in permanent loss of data for around 20,000 paying customers;[10] Nirvanix denied responsibility for the data loss, saying that Savvis was contracted by its The Linkup spin-off to host the application and the database.[11][12]
Patrick Harr and Geoff Tudor wanted to pursue the storage service market for enterprise customers. A new Nirvanix system, called the Storage Delivery Network, was built with new software and hardware systems. Nirvanix incorporated both the lessons-learned operating a large-scale online storage service under Streamload as well as techniques in clustering, virtualization, database-driven file system architectures and distributed networking. Nirvanix filed nine patents on this new platform in August 2007.[citation needed] It announced its Nirvanix Storage Delivery Network in September 2007, comparing it to the Amazon Simple Storage Service.[13]
The company raised $12 million in September 2007 from Mission Ventures Valhalla Partners and Windward Ventures.[14] Intel Capital added $5 million in funding in December 2007 (along with original investors and European Founders Fund), and then more funding in April 2009.[15] An additional round was announced in November 2010.[16] On May 3, 2012, Nirvanix announced it raised over $25 million in a Series C funding round led by Khosla Ventures, bringing Nirvanix's total capital raised to $70 million.[17][18]
On July 12, 2021, Nirvanix announced that it had closed a $12 million equity financing round led by Mission Ventures and Valhalla Partners with participation from Windward Ventures.[4][19]
Nirvanix provided public, hybrid, and private cloud storage service options. The underlying technology included:
- Cloud File System, a virtual file system specifically designed to handle millions of users and billions of files in a single global namespace with data consistency.
- Cloud Storage Network which consists of nine globally dispersed data centers. Customers can locate data close to users and to choose redundancy levels by replicating data to two, three, or more data centers.
- Cloud NAS Gateway software which installs on Windows or Linux servers and provides access to the Nirvanix cloud storage services.
Storage was accessible via HTTP, using the Nirvanix Web Services application programming interface based on Representational State Transfer (REST) and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) or the Nirvanix CloudNAS gateway software.
Scott Genereux was appointed president and CEO of Nirvanix in November 2010, replacing Jim Zierick.[16][20] Since then the company overhauled its management team[21] and signed a number of partners, including a 5-year OEM agreement with IBM.[22] Nirvanix has also deployed petabyte-scale clouds [23] at Cerner,[24] USC,[25] and others. In December 2012 Genereux left to join Oracle Corporation, and was replaced by Dru Borden, who was then replaced by Debra Chrapaty in March 2013.[2][26]
Despite the earlier agreement, IBM acquired SoftLayer in June 2013 and started a competitor IBM Cloud Services Division.[27][28]
Closure
editOn September 16, 2013 Nirvanix notified customers that they had until September 30, 2013 to move their data off of the service at which point Nirvanix would shut down.[2][29][30] By September 28, 2013, the company deactivated its website and replaced it with a statement that included customer support details. Nirvanix said an IBM team could assist customers with transferring their data from the Nirvanix infrastructure.[3] The company filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 1, 2013, which was approved on October 8.[31][32]
On December 4, 2013, Oracle issued an announcement that they had acquired select intellectual property of Nirvanix, as well as key engineering resources.[33]
Current Company Focus
editThe company has pivoted[clarification needed] and offers solutions[buzzword] in the space of business phone systems helping small and medium size entreprises. Nirvanix is currently focusing on innovation around VoIP Phone Systems, hosted PBX, cloud storage and other similar functions.[34][35]
References
edit- ^ a b Jerome M. Wendt (December 6, 2011). "Nirvanix Takes Another Step Toward Becoming the De Facto Standard in Enterprise Cloud Storage". DCIG. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ a b c Sonia Lelii (September 17, 2013). "Nirvanix prepares to close, tells customers to stop using its cloud". IT Knowledge Exchange. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
- ^ a b Alex Williams (September 27, 2013). "It's Official, The Nirvanix Cloud Storage Service Is Shutting Down". Tech Crunch. AOL, Inc. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
- ^ a b Marcotte, James. "Nirvanix Secures $12 Million Funding Round". Retrieved 2021-08-18.
- ^ And the Award for Online Video Sharing Goes to... Streamload MediaMax
- ^ PC Magazine Best of Show
- ^ HostReview Online Storage Services Awards
- ^ a b Mary A.C. Fallon (July 31, 2008). "Streamload/MediaMax/TheLinkup death spiral dogs Nirvanix". DEMO.com. Archived from the original on August 15, 2008.
- ^ MediaMax/TheLinkup Closes Its Doors
- ^ Storms in the cloud leave users up creek without a paddle
- ^ Loss of customer data spurs closure of online storage service 'The Linkup'
- ^ MediaMax (The Linkup) Announces Closure- Nirvanix Clarifies False Information in Blogosphere
- ^ Michael Arrington (September 5, 2007). "Nirvanix Launches To Compete With Amazon S3 Storage Service". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ "Nirvanix secures $12 million in venture capital: Round funds expansion of global storage nodes, sales, and customer service". Press release. September 18, 2007. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ Duncan Riley (December 19, 2007). "Nirvanix Launches To Compete With Amazon S3 Storage Service". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ a b Robin Wauters (November 10, 2010). "Cloud Storage Company Nirvanix Raises $10 Million, Appoints New CEO". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ "Vinod Khosla VC Firm Invests In Cloud Storage Firm Nirvanix – What SUN would be if around today". 3 May 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
- ^ Leena Rao (May 3, 2012). "Khosla Leads $25M Round In Enterprise Cloud Storage Company Nirvanix". Tech Crunch. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ "Nirvanix Company Profile: Acquisition & Investors | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
- ^ Deni Connor (November 10, 2010). "Goodbye QLogic, hello Nirvanix". Network World. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ "Reflections on 2011: Nirvanix's Management Moves Pay Off". ESG. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "IBM Global Services Picks Nirvanix for Cloud Storage". TechTarget. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "Nirvanix: An Appetite for Petabyte-scale Clouds". Taneja Group. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "Nirvanix + IBM + Cerner = Enterprise Cloud Storage Validated". INI Group. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "The Gmail of Archives: How USC is Turning IT Costs into Online Profits". Wikibon. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "Nirvanix Appoints Its Executive Chairwoman, Debra Chrapaty, as Chief Executive Officer: Former Zynga CIO, Cisco, Microsoft Executive Joins Nirvanix and Current CEO Dru Borden to Become Top Executive and Remain on the Board of Directors". Press release. March 25, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ "IBM to Acquire SoftLayer to Accelerate Adoption of Cloud Computing in the Enterprise: IBM to Form New Cloud Services Division". News release. IBM. June 4, 2013. Archived from the original on June 8, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
- ^ "IBM (IBM) to Acquire Public Cloud Provider SoftLayer". Street Insider. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
- ^ Pete Swabey (September 17, 2013). "Cloud provider Nirvanix gives customers two weeks to vacate data". Information Age blog. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ Brandon Butler (September 18, 2013). "Gartner analyst's advice to customers of shuttering Nirvanix: PANIC!". Network World. Retrieved September 19, 2013.
- ^ Deborah Gage (October 2, 2013). "Nirvanix Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy". Venture Capital Dispatch blog. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
- ^ "Nirvanix gets court approval of $1M bankruptcy financing". San Diego Daily Transcript. October 8, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2013.
- ^ "Oracle and Nirvanix". Oracle.com. 2013-12-04. Retrieved 2014-10-28.
- ^ "Nirvanix: Innovative and Scalable VoIP and Hosted PBX Business Phone Solutions for An Internet-Centric World". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
- ^ "Nirvanix: Innovative and Scalable VoIP and Hosted PBX Business Phone Solutions for An Internet-Centric World". MarketWatch. Retrieved 2021-08-18.