PernixData
{{Short description|Software company based in San Jose, California that was founded in 2012}}
{{Infobox company
| name = PernixData
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| type = Subsidiary
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| foundation = {{Start date and age|2012}}
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| location = San Jose California
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| key_people = Poojan Kumar, CEO
Satyam Vaghani, CTO
| industry = Storage virtualization
| products = FVP
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| parent = Nutanix
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| homepage = {{URL|www.pernixdata.com}}
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PernixData was a software company based in San Jose, California. PernixData was founded in 2012, and acquired in 2016. Its main product is PernixData FVP, which is software for virtualizing server-side flash memory{{cite news|url=http://gigaom.com/2013/02/20/pernixdata-comes-out-of-stealth-to-attack-server-side-flash-problem/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131030093814/http://gigaom.com/2013/02/20/pernixdata-comes-out-of-stealth-to-attack-server-side-flash-problem/|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 30, 2013|title=PernixData comes out of stealth to attack server-side flash problem|last=Darrow|first=Barb|date=February 20, 2013|work=Gigaom|accessdate=2 December 2013}} and random-access memory (RAM).
History
PernixData was co-founded in February 2012 by Poojan Kumar, CEO, and Satyam Vaghani, CTO.{{cite news |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/02/20/pernixdata-aims-to-break-virtualization-and-storage-bottleneck/ |title=PernixData Aims To Break Virtualization And Storage Bottleneck|last=Geren |first=Tomio |work=Forbes |date=February 20, 2013 |accessdate=January 21, 2014}} Initial capital investment came from Lightspeed Venture Partners with individual investments from Mark Leslie, founding chairman and CEO of Veritas; John Thomson, CEO of Virtual Instruments and Microsoft Board Member; and Lane Bess, chief operating officer at Zscaler and former CEO of Palo Alto Networks. A second round of funding in May 2013 came from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the original investors.{{cite news |url=https://techcrunch.com/2013/05/14/pernixdata-raises-20m-in-oversubscribed-round-for-new-way-to-think-about-storage/ |title=PernixData Raises $20M In Oversubscribed Round For New Way To Think About Storage |last=Williams |first=Alex |work=TechCrunch |date=May 14, 2013 |accessdate=January 21, 2014}} In August 2014, PernixData raised Series C financing, led by Menlo Ventures with contributions from previous investors. Investments in that round were also made by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce; Jim Davidson, of Silver Lake Partners and Steve Luczo, chairman and CEO of Seagate Technology.{{cite news |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/08/20/the-daily-startup-marc-benioff-joins-35m-round-for-pernixdata/ |title=The Daily Startup: Marc Benioff Joins $35M Round for PernixData |last=Basich |first=Zoran |work=Wall Street Journal |date=August 20, 2014 |accessdate=August 20, 2014}}
In August 2013, PernixData announced its FVP software product. In July, 2016, there were reports of potential sale of the company.{{Citation |title= Sources: Nutanix poised to gobble PernixData: Hyper-converged upstart eyes up hypervisor flash caching biz |author= Chris Mellor |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/01/hyperconverged_nutanix_could_be_buying_vmcare_cacher_pernixdata/ |date= July 1, 2016 |work= The Register |accessdate= August 29, 2016 }}{{Cite web |title= Independence no more? Will Nutanix acquire PernixData |date= July 4, 2016 |url= http://vulcancast.com/2016/07/04/independence-no-more-will-nutanix-acquire-pernixdata/ |author= Marc Farley and Lauren Malhoit |work= Vuncalcast |accessdate= August 29, 2016 }}
PernixData was acquired by Nutanix in August, 2016.{{Cite news |title= Nutanix acquires two startups amid IPO delay |work= Yahoo! Tech |author= Heather Somerville |date= August 28, 2016 }}
Products and competition
PernixData FVP virtualizes server-side flash memory and random-access memory (RAM), software intended to scale storage performance independent of capacity.{{cite news |url=http://www.crn.com/news/storage/240159476/pernixdata-fvp-clusters-server-flash-to-add-performance-in-virtualized-environments.htm |title= PernixData FVP Clusters Server Flash To Add Performance In Virtualized Environments |author=Joseph F. Kovar |work=CRN Magazine |date=August 5, 2013 |accessdate=January 21, 2014}} In 2013, PernixData FVP was only available for VMware's cloud computing platform vSphere 5, but Kumar indicated plans to ready FVP for various hypervisors, including Microsoft Hyper-V.{{cite news |url=http://willemterharmsel.nl/interview-poojan-kumar-ceo-of-pernix-data/|title= Interview Poojan Kumar – CEO of PernixData |last=ter Harmsel |first=William |work=Willemterharmsel.nl |date=November 4, 2013 |accessdate=January 21, 2014}}
Version 2.0 of FVP was announced in August 2014, alongside various new editions of the product (Enterprise, Standard, VDI and Essentials Plus).{{cite news |url=http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240231805/PernixData-adds-RAM-pools-to-FVP-flash-caching-software |title=PernixData adds RAM pools to FVP flash caching software |work=ComputerWeeky |date=October 1, 2014 |accessdate=October 1, 2014}}{{cite news |url=http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/it-unmasked/pernixdata-turns-memory-in-unified-persistent-storage.html |title=PernixData Turns Memory in Unified Persistent Storage |last=Vizard |first=Mike |work=ITBusinessEdge |date=September 2, 2014 |accessdate=September 2, 2014}}
Competing VMware-focused flash virtualization technologies include Virtunet Systems' VirtuCache,{{cite web |url=http://www.virtunetsystems.com/ |title=Home |website=virtunetsystems.com}} SanDisk’s FlashSoft, Proximal Data's Autocache, and VMware's own vSphere Flash Read Cache (vFRC).[https://archive.today/20140126111354/http://gigaom.com/2013/07/03/lively-flash-market-leaves-fusion-io-standing-on-shaky-ground/ Lively flash market leaves Fusion-io standing on shaky ground — Tech News and Analysis]
PernixData's FVP and Virtunet Systems' VirtuCache distinguish themselves from VMware's own vFRC by adding write caching and clustering.{{Cite web |author= Chris Mellor |url= https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/16/pernixdata_better_thanvmwares_own_flash_cache/ |title= PernixData shows off write-caching, clustering one-trick FVP pony. Can VMware kit do this? No. Well, not for now, anyway... |date= October 16, 2013 |work= The Register |accessdate= August 29, 2016 }}