RainStor, the provider of a specialized database that enables wide scalability through extreme compression techniques, has raised $12 million in a Series C round led by Credit Suisse and Rogers Venture Partners. Existing investors Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, Storm Ventures and the Dow Chemical Company also participated.
Spun out of research done in the UK Ministry of Defense, RainStor produces a database that deduplicates the data at an extreme compression of 97 percent to reduce petabytes of capacity to low terabytes. It provides a data retention solution that’s instantly searchable at about a tenth of the price of the industry standard.
“(We address) the business requirement to store and manage Big Data at lowest cost scale with the least complexity and ensure the business users have flexible access for query and analysis in addition to meeting data-driven compliance regulations,” explained John Bantleman, RainStor’s CEO, in an email to Red Herring.
The company began in January running its databases on the Apache Hadoop Distributed File System, which provides wider scalability options to multi-petabyte potential. More than using Hadoop as a connector, the company actually runs its platform on Hadoop with no need to transfer large amounts of data between the platform and the client. The company claims its platform is easier to use and doesn’t require a large IT staff to manage it.
Wide scalability of data has become essential to enterprises, with data growth rates rising 50 to 100 percent annually, Bantleman explained. The innovation of the open source Apache Hadoop makes storing and managing of big data possible because it does require enterprise grade capabilities such as standard SQL access in addition to built-in availability and security.
“We are changing the economics of big data management for the enterprise and targeting the largest banks and communications operators worldwide to provide business value at the lowest TCO,” he stated.
The company serves over 100 global enterprises, and has been growing at a 100 to 200 percent growth rate. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company has development centers in the UK, and sells its technology through partnerships to Europe, the US, Japan, India, and Africa.
The company will use the new funding to accelerate its engineering team and expand its sales and marketing departments. The company will open several offices in the US, including one in New York City.
“The market need is very strong and we believe that banking, financial services, communications and government have been living with Big Data challenges for a long time,” Bantleman said. “The market timing is excellent right now because there is strong demand across many of these sectors and innovative technology capabilities that are already proven and reaping benefits and rewards.”
Rainstor was a 2011 Red Herring North America Award winner.