Storage Caching Appliance Maker Gets $7.3M In VC Funding

The company's technology allows data to be accessed over WANs at LAN speed, said Tim Williams, chairman and CEO.

The Tacit Storage Cache is an appliance server that uses a proprietary technology to allow files to be shared or backed up between a central data center and multiple remote sites as if the users were sitting on a single LAN, Williams said. One appliance sits at the data center, while another sits at a remote site. The two are connected via IP networks and use caching to ensure only changes in the data are transmitted, he said.

"At the remote site, the appliance looks like a NAS box," Williams said. "With the cache system, data is stored in the data center so that backups and management are handled centrally."

The appliances, which have been in beta testing for several months, will be rolled out in January to five customers for pilot testing, the company said.

Williams said the company's initial sales focus will be on early adopters, including manufacturers, software developers, hospitals and media developers, which do a lot of collaboration projects and need high performance. Such sales will typically be done direct, he said.

However, Tacit also plans to engage the channel by the end of first quarter of 2003 for customers with a central data center and multiple remote sites. "The channel play will be for companies with 50 sites who are looking to implement a single data center," said Williams. "They are looking for easier ways to do backups and disaster recovery. Since this involves infrastructure changes, this is a better play for solution providers. They can pitch customers on huge ROI savings."