10 Hot Emerging Vendors For March 2012

Innovate Right Out Of The Gate

It seems like new companies are blossoming at an ever-quickening pace and launching ground-breaking products as they go. Each month, CRN profiles 10 new IT vendors in technology segments from security to cloud computing, from software to hardware, that are ready to break away from the pack and make a difference.

Read on and see which of these 10 hot new vendors you think will make a mark.

Tegile Systems

Company: Tegile Systems
Tech Sector: Storage
Key Product: Zebi hybrid storage arrays

Newark, Calif.-based Tegile Systems in February exited stealth mode with its Zebi hybrid storage arrays, which feature deduplication of primary data for both high-performance primary applications and secondary backup storage. The Zebi arrays support both SAN and NAS storage with snapshot and replication technology for about $1 per GB of capacity.

Tegile's arrays are based on its patent-pending Metadata Accelerated Storage System (MASS), which manages the system's metadata on high-speed media to accelerate random and sequential I/O, dedupe, compression, snapshots and RAID rebuilds. The arrays also feature a mix of solid-state memory and high-capacity hard drives.

Porticor

Company: Porticor
Tech Sector: Security
Key Product: Virtual Private Data System

Cloud security vendor Porticor went live in February with a product combining data encryption and key management to protect data in public, private and hybrid clouds.

Porticor said its Virtual Private Data System addresses a business’ data security concerns when it is considering migrating to the cloud. The Virtual Private Data System creates a secured environment while eliminating the need for a business to trust a security vendor or cloud provider with encryption keys.

Porticor is an Amazon Web Services solution provider and supports other public clouds. The company is based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and is venture-funded by Glilot Capital.

Appthority

Company: Appthority
Tech Sector: Security
Key Product: Appthority Platform

San Francisco-based security vendor Appthority is helping businesses identify and manage risks in their mobile applications. Its Appthority Platform uses a cloud-based behavioral analysis engine that identifies and grades mobile malware used in targeted attacks, corporate data exfiltration and intellectual property exposure.

Appthority was named the winner of Most Innovative Company at the RSA Conference 2012 contest in February.

AppDirect

Company: AppDirect
Tech Sector: Cloud Computing
Key Product: AppDirect Marketplace Manager

Cloud vendor AppDirect is offering software for channel partners, including hosting providers and telecoms, to manage their own cloud application stores. With AppDirect Marketplace Manager, channel partners can offer services, applications and promotional offers to their small-business customers.

AppDirect Marketplace Manager lets solution providers administer a cloud service marketplace, making available to customers offerings such as product catalogs and settings, to customer service, marketing and billing.

Nicira

Company: Nicira
Tech Sector: Networking
Key Product: Network Virtualization Platform

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Nicira attracted much attention in late 2011 as many wondered what the network virtualization startup would unveil. In February, they got their answer. Nicira launched its Network Virtualization Platform (NVP), a software system designed to create distributed virtual network infrastructure for cloud data centers.

The company lured some major networking players, including Alan Cohen, a former Cisco vice president, who joined Nicira as vice president of marketing, and Rob Enns, a Juniper veteran, who joined Nicira as vice president of engineering.

Zettaset

Company: Zettaset
Tech Sector: Security
Key Product: SHadoop

Zettaset used the RSA Conference to release SHadoop, its initiative to help companies secure Hadoop in managing Big Data, or large amounts of structured and unstructured data.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Zettaset has developed a security layer in its Hadoop Orchestrator data management platform. Hadoop is a software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications under an open-source license.

SHadoop will enable administrators to establish and store a baseline security policy for what users can do with data on the Hadoop platform.

SurDoc

Company: SurDoc
Tech Sector: Cloud Storage
Key Product: SurDoc online document sharing

The Menlo Park, Calif., startup SurDoc has entered the cloud storage arena with an online document storage and management service.

Launched in December 2011 with $4 million in venture funding from IDG Ventures, the company is offering 10 GB of free storage along with free, secure and automatic backup of Microsoft Windows data files to the cloud. SurDoc lets users share documents across mobile and desktops via Web browser or e-mail client. Earlier this month, the company also unveiled a secure document signing capability feature on its SurDoc platform.

BetterCloud

Company: BetterCloud
Tech Sector: Security
Key Product: DomainWatch

BetterCloud, a cloud-based application developer for Google Apps, this month launched DomainWatch, a new security and compliance app for Google Apps admins.

DomainWatch, available in the Google Apps Marketplace, improves the ability of IT staff to monitor, control and secure end-user access to Google Docs, Sites and Calendars.

Silver Tail Systems

Company: Silver Tail Systems
Tech Sector: Security
Key Product: Silver Tail Systems Forensics

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Silver Tail Systems is using innovative antifraud solutions to help online merchants. Its Silver Tail Systems Forensics lets a business owner look at how his Web site is being used by displaying the usage of the site on a per-page, per-user or per-IP level.

If suspicious activity is discovered, Silver Tail Systems Forensics gives the business user a profile of the bad actors and their specific behaviors.

Starboard Storage Systems

Company: Starboard Storage Systems
Tech Sector: Storage
Key Product: Starboard AC72 storage architecture

Starboard Storage Systems came out of stealth mode in February with a new storage architecture designed to handle mixed workloads, including structured, unstructured and virtualized data.

Starboard's storage applications quickly provision storage, optimize storage volumes, and provide predictable performance by pooling hard drives and SSDs into one dynamic storage pool that can be carved up as needed for mixed workloads.

Starboard’s channel-only model offers partners 40 percent margins in addition to other benefits.