Venture capitalist Mark Ashida takes reins at cloud storage startup Symform

Mark Ashida

Well, here’s one job you can score if your venture capital firm starts to wind down: Take over the CEO post at one of your portfolio companies. That’s what is occurring at Symform, the cloud storage and backup startup which just last week scored $3 million in fresh funding. Today, the company is announcing that… Read More…

German agency seals $23M deal for high-powered Cray supercomputers to improve the science of weather predictions

crayxc30-small

Seattle supercomputer maker Cray Inc. has sealed a $23 million deal to deliver two XC30 supercomputers and two Sonexion 1600 storage systems to Germany’s National Meteorological Service, one of the world’s top weather prediction centers. Cray said in a press release today that researchers at Deutscher Wetterdienst, or DWD, will be able to use the machines to produce… Read More…

Cray makes bold move in data storage, hires majority of Texas team from SFW

cray

Here’s one way to bolster a business, and pick up some talented staffers in a tight hiring market. Seattle supercomputer maker Cray announced Thursday that it has hired the majority of employees from Austin, Texas-based SystemFabricWorks, a company that’s described as a leader in “storage interconnect solutions and software.” Joining Cray as part of the deal are… Read More…

Amazon unveils new storage and backup service ‘Glacier’

aws-glacier

Another day, another new offering from Amazon Web Services. Today, the company rolled out Amazon Glacier, described as a low-cost storage, data archiving and backup service. “With Amazon Glacier, customers can reliably store large or small amounts of data for as little as $0.01 per gigabyte per month, a significant savings compared to on-premises solutions,”… Read More…

Fast-growing storage upstart Box unpacks $125 million in funding

Box CEO Aaron Levie

Box, the file sharing and data storage startup founded seven years ago by Mercer Island High School grads Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith, has reeled in a whopping $125 million venture round led by General Atlantic. The financing follows an $81 million deal that the Los Altos, California company raised last fall, building a substantial arsenal… Read More…

Ex-Isilon, Amazon engineers start stealthy Qumulo

Peter Godman

Isilon System is one of the biggest startup success stories of the past 10 years, with the Seattle storage company rebounding from tough times to sell for a whopping $2.25 billion to EMC in late 2010. The company has continued to grow in its new Pioneer Square headquarters, even gobbling up Bellevue-based Likewise Software last month…. Read More…

‘Mooning’ Microsoft: Box skips software giant in release of new mobile cloud service

Box.net co-founder Aaron Levie

Was there something traumatic about Aaron Levie’s childhood that caused an intense dislike of Microsoft? The founder of the Silicon Valley online storage service Box attended Mercer Island High School, just a few miles from Microsoft’s sprawling Redmond campus. But there’s no hometown pride when it comes to Microsoft, a company that Levie has routinely… Read More…

Exclusive: The inside details on EMC’s $36M purchase of Likewise Software

Barry Crist

Few details were available last week when EMC purchased Likewise Software. Now, GeekWire has learned that EMC’s Isilon unit paid $36.6 million for the 7-year-old Bellevue company — a deal that Likewise CEO Barry Crist described as a “solid win” for employees and shareholders. As part of the deal, $3.5 million is being set aside in a… Read More…

EMC’s Isilon division buys storage software company Likewise

Barry Crist

The Isilon Storage Division of EMC Corp. is expanding its footprint in its own backyard, gobbling up Bellevue software storage startup Likewise in a deal of undisclosed size. In a letter, Likewise CEO Barry Crist called the deal a “solid win for all involved.” “With the acquisition, the Likewise team will be joining the leader… Read More…