Quantum Acquires Square Box Systems, Hires Flash Storage Guru Brian Pawlowski

‘[We] see an opportunity for packaging CatDV with Quantum storage and take that to market as a solution neither sided has been able to do before. It’s a big opportunity for us to develop an all-in-one appliance,’ says Eric Bassier, Quantum’s senior director of product marketing.

Data storage and management vendor Quantum has acquired Square Box Systems, developer of the CatDV media management and workflow automation technology, and plans to combine both companies’ technologies into a more complete offering targeting video, audio, and other large data sets.

Quantum on Tuesday also said it has hired Brian Pawlowski, a longtime flash storage technology expert, to be its chief development officer.

Square Box Systems brings to Quantum a new focus on data cataloging, data analytics, and workflow automation, said Eric Bassier, senior director of product marketing for San Jose, Calif.-based Quantum.

[Related: CEO Jamie Lerner On Quantum’s NVMe, Edge Computing Focus]

The value of the acquisition was not released.

Quantum in November significantly expanded its portfolio of file and object data storage technologies, and is now expanding its entire portfolio with Square Box Systems’ CatDV technology, Bassier told CRN.

“With CatDV, we’re adding applications for cataloging, artificial intelligence analytics, and workflow automation,” he said. “Quantum can now provide the end-to-end management of data.”

Dave Clack, CEO of Square Box Systems prior to the acquisition and now Quantum’s general manager for cloud software, said the CatDV software has proven itself in its ability to manage video and other large files primarily in the media and entertainment market, but it also has application in other areas such as healthcare, genomics, and anywhere businesses deal with large data sets.

“Our architecture allows us to pivot to other types of data, including security and surveillance footage or autonomous vehicles,” Clack told CRN. “It features a plug-in architecture. We can add in new insights for other data types, and we already support hundreds of data types.”

Quantum works with other asset management systems and Square Box Systems works with other storage vendors, and both will continue doing so, Bassier said.

However, he said, it was important to Quantum that it acquired Square Box Systems.

“CatDV is well-established in post-production, corporate video, houses of worship, higher education, and other niches,” he said. “Quantum can help take it to the next level, to a broader market. And we also see an opportunity for packaging CatDV with Quantum storage and take that to market as a solution neither sided has been able to do before. It’s a big opportunity for us to develop an all-in-one appliance.”

Square Box Systems is a profitable and growing business, Bassier said. The company, which is already in the late stages of a transition to a cloud-based SaaS model, has a channel-focused business serving 1,500-plus commercial software deployments, including many joint Quantum StorNext and CatDV customers, he said.

Quantum on Tuesday also said it has hired Brian Pawlowski as its new chief development officer.

Pawlowski is best-known for the 21 years he spent at NetApp, where he eventually rose to the position of senior vice president and member of the company’s technical staff. He left NetApp in March of 2015 for rival Pure Storage, where he spent three years working on new product development before heading to DriveScale where as chief technology officer helped with the development of technology combining commodity compute, storage, and GPU on NVMe fabric.