Nasuni Adds Former Veeam Co-CEO, Ex-NetApp Exec To Board

Joel Reich and Peter McKay both were instrumental in helping their previous companies grow, and both told CRN they expect to bring their experience to help expand Nasuni's product strategy and go-to-market capabilities.

Cloud file services technology developer Nasuni on Tuesday said it has brought two well-known seasoned storage executives onto its board of directors.

The first is Joel Reich (left in photo), the former executive vice president of NetApp's Storage Systems and Software Business Unit.

Reich, who retired in August, was instrumental in pushing some of NetApp's top technology initiatives including hybrid cloud tech with consumption-based IT, the company's HCI hyper-converged infrastructure technology, and a close tie to Intel's Optane SD flash storage technology.

[Related: Nasuni Automates Primary, Archive Tiering In Multi-Cloud Environments]

The second is Peter McKay (right in photo), former co-CEO and president of data protection and management software developer Veeam Software and current CEO of Snyk.

McKay spent about two-and-a-half years as one of Veeam's top executives before leaving the company in late November of 2018. He became CEO of London-based Snyk last June.

Nasuni executives were unable to respond to CRN inquiries by press time.

Reich told CRN he retired from NetApp after over 17 years in part because he had hit his sixtieth birthday and in part because of his regular commute between his Boston home and NetApp's Silicon Valley headquarters.

"I talked it over with [NetApp CEO] George Kurian, and we decided it was a good time to retire," he said. "Now I'm looking forward to chapter two, where my plan is to be on a couple of boards. Nasuni is my first."

NetApp and Nasuni are considered competitors in the file-based storage market, but Reich said the cloud changes everything.

"Nasuni doesn't build on-premises storage," he said. "But Nasuni is in a position that other storage vendors are moving towards, looking to take storage from traditional on-premises-based to cloud-based."

As an independent director at Nasuni, Reich expects to be able to his product strategy to help that company.

"I've looked at how to take product to multiple markets," he said. "I hope to contribute to Nasuni's product strategies and look at what's important in the cloud and what's not important. And I get to help with product strategies without having to meet any shipping dates."

Reich also likes that he is being given the opportunity to once again be on a team.

"NetApp has a big culture of cooperation, where anyone can contribute their opinion," he said. "I look forward to getting to do that again."

Reich said he was in the storage industry for a long time, and heard through mutual friends that Nasuni, which is headquartered close to his Boston home, was looking for a couple of independent directors.

"A mutual friend introduced me to [Nasuni CEO] Paul Flanagan, and we hit it off well," he said.

McKay told CRN that his current company, Snyk (pronounced "sneak'" as in sneakers), which fixes security vulnerabilities in open source, currently has no business relationship with Nasuni.

"Not yet," he said. "We're both in the cloud. Snyk focuses on securing the cloud, and Nasuni is in the cloud. Certain things tend to converge over time. We're both fast-paced, significant market growers. There's a lot we can learn from each other."

McKay said that he can help Nasuni with its go-to market activities.

"When I was at Veeam, we went from a company with revenue of under $400 million to over $1 billion," he said. "That scale, geographic expansion, and go-to-market ramp is something I bring to Nasuni. And maybe some of the mistakes I made can provide experience to Nasuni. Knowing where the problems are ahead, I can help Nasuni's go-to-market activities."

Bringing on Reich and McKay is a good move for Nasuni, said John Woodall, vice president of engineering at Integrated Archive Systems, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based solution provider that works with both NetApp and Nasuni.

Woodall told CRN that he has known Reich for many years, and it's nice to see him making a board of directors move.

"Joel has a lot of experience," he said. "He was there doing some of NetApp's biggest growth periods. Not everyone has that kind of experience. Taking that kind of coaching experience to Nasuni is a big win for that company."

Reich is a passionate technologist, Woodall said. "I have a lot of respect for him," he said. "He's going to be a great addition to the Nasuni board."