10 Hot Emerging Vendors For September 2011

Ready For Primetime

Step right up and get what may very well be your first look at 10 hot new IT vendors that are exploding onto the scene. Each month, CRN profiles 10 new IT vendors that are looking to shake up the industry in various technology segments, from security to cloud computing, from software to hardware.

These tech startups know the importance of the channel and are looking to align with valued channel partners to get their names and products out.

Take a look and get introduced to 10 vendors that are ready for prime time.

Piston Cloud Computing

Company: Piston Cloud Computing
Tech Sector: Cloud Computing
Key Product: pentOS

The Lowdown: Piston Cloud Computing is an open-source cloud player that just came out of stealth mode this year and offered a glimpse at its pentOS "hands-free" cloud. The private cloud infrastructure makes it easy for users to configure and provision a private cloud and offers hooks that help tie together once disparate cloud systems. Basically, the cloud comes on a USB stick and is configured and deployed from there.

San Francisco-based Piston Cloud uses the Rackspace-led OpenStack open-source cloud and looks to address security, performance and lifecycle management of private cloud computing. The company has already brought in a whopping $4.5 million in funding and plans to soon bring systems integrators into its partner ecosystem.

Centrix Software

Company Name: Centrix Software
Tech Sector: Software
Key Product: WorkSpace iQ

The Lowdown: Founded in 2008 and with its first channel-ready product shipping two years later, UK-based Centrix Software provides Centrix WorkSpace analytics and service delivery solutions for end-user computing, which enables partners and customers to gain more insight via out-of-the-box reports. The analysis and data can be used to examine how IT is used and consumed, optimize investments for cost savings and efficiencies and plan and prepare for cloud computing and virtualization. According to the company, Centrix WorkSpace is both Citrix Ready and VMware Ready.

Elfiq Networks

Company: Elfiq Networks
Tech Sector: Networking
Key Product: Link Balancer

The Lowdown: Montreal-based Elfiq Networks offers bandwidth management and network security solutions. Its flagship line of Link Balancer products offer integration with bandwidth management technologies. The Link Balancer line lets companies use multiple concurrent ISP circuits to prevent connectivity issues and downtime and boost performance.

And the company has been targeting the channel since the 2008 launch of the Elfiq Networks' Alliance Program which targets VARs, VADs, agents, technology partners and other types of solution providers to offer Link Balancers through the channel.

AlertEnterprise

Company: AlertEnterprise
Tech Sector: Security
Key Product: Identity and Access Management solutions

The Lowdown: Fremont, Calif.-based AlertEnterprise makes next-generations security software to prevent fraud, theft and acts of sabotage. According to the company, its Security Convergence technology delivers enterprise identity and access management software that can automate on-boarding and off-boarding and enable active policy enforcement. Founded in 2007, AlertEnterprise says that it eliminates silos and uncovers blended threats across IT security, physical access controls and industrial control systems to protect businesses. AlertEnterprise has a large partner ecosystem through which it targets clients in a host of industries and in the public sector.

Millenniata

Company: Millenniata
Tech Sector: Storage
Key Product: M-DISC

The Lowdown: Millenniata came onto the scene in 2008 with its M-DISC permanent file backup disc that the company claims lasts forever. "Unlike computer hard-drives and optical discs (CD and DVD) that suffer from decay, destroying the files you were trying to preserve and protect, the M-DISC cannot be overwritten, erased, or corrupted by natural processes. Best of all, you can access your data anywhere and anytime. It is the new standard in digital storage," the Provo, Utah-based company says on its Web site. Millenniata boasts that its "Write Once, Read Forever" technology is indestructible and locks data onto a disc.

Fluxx

Company: Fluxx
Tech Sector: Software
Key Product: Fluxx

The Lowdown: Fluxx, which was founded this year, is fresh on the scene and is looking to unify your data. San Francisco-based Fluxx's business management platform aggregates all company data together into a single, unified interface in real-time, the company claims. The cloud-based service lets users compile applications and specific data into a dashboard that showcases only they data they seek. Fluxx can be run as a standalone platform or in conjunction with third party business and social applications including Salesforce, Zendesk, JIRA, LinkedIn and more. Right now, Fluxx is only available in a private beta.

SuVolta

Company: SuVolta
Tech Sector: Hardware
Key Product: PowerShrink Platform

The Lowdown: CMOS semiconductor startup SuVolta is looking to whittle down power consumption that integrated circuits have long been known for. According to the company, excessive consumption is one of the biggest hurdles semiconductors face across all product categories, and with its SuVolta PowerShrink platform, Los Gatos, Calif.-based SuVolta aims to help semiconductor companies cut chip power in half without loss of performance or functionality and without having to migrate to more advanced or expensive platforms. The company boasts power reductions of 50 percent or more at the same performance and the ability to reduce power leakage by 80 percent. SuVolta came out of stealth mode in June 2011.

ClearSlide

Company: ClearSlide
Tech Sector: Software
Key Product: ClearSlide

The Lowdown: San Francisco-based ClearSlide just nabbed $11 million in Series A funding to continue to build around its cloud-based business communications platform. Led by Evite co-founder Al Lieb, CEO, and seasoned sales executive Jim Benton, COO, the company focuses on helping sales teams close business. First, sales teams upload their sales collateral into ClearSlide, including presentations, PDFs, videos, interactive Web pages and other information. Sales can now deliver this content via different communication methods, including phone calls, e-mails and in-person presentations. ClearSlide, founded in 2009, also collects analytics on how sales teams and customers interact with the content, helping sales reps know how to focus their time and enabling management to gain better insight into their team's activities.

Kaminario

Company: Kaminario
Tech Sector: Storage
Key Product: Kaminario K2 All Solid-state SAN Storage Solutions

The Lowdown: Founded in 2008, Kaminario promises extreme performance for accelerating business applications via its K2 all solid-state storage solutions. Built on the Boston-based company's Scale-out Performance Storage Architecture (SPEAR), Kaminario's K2 line supports millions of IOPS and tens of GB/s of throughput that the company said can eliminate I/O bottlenecks with a lower cost and smaller footprint than legacy SAN storage. Kaminario is application, database and file system agnostic, according to the company, and can scale to fit any size business.

Kaminario is looking to boost its partner roster and is seeking partners who work with local and regional financial institutions, telcos, Web service providers and government agencies across North America and EMEA.

HyTrust

Company: HyTrust
Tech Sector: Virtualization
Key Product: HyTrust Appliance

The Lowdown: Based in Mountain View, Calif., HyTrust offers policy management and access control solutions for virtual infrastructure. HyTrust Appliance layers controls for access, accountability and visibility on top of virtualization infrastructure. HyTrust enforces policies on the control plane of VMware-based virtual infrastructure to add visibility into security and compliance.