A maker of data storage computers with a big backer is coming to Irvine.
San Jose-based Pillar Data Systems Inc. is set to open a small sales office this month.
Pillar, which strings together disk drives for data storage and backup, is the brainchild of billionaire Larry Ellison and Michael Workman, Pillar’s chief executive.
Ellison, who heads up database software kingpin Oracle Corp., has put up about $300 million for Pillar through his investment company, Tako Ventures LLC.
He teamed up with Workman, who spent most of his 30-plus years in the data storage business with IBM Corp., back in 2000.
Ellison funded the startup with the goal of making data storage networks cheaper and easier to use for midsize companies,and creating new markets for Oracle software.
“The intent of the company was to bring the cost and complexity of data storage down,” spokesman Chris Drago said.
Companies, banks and governments use storage networks to house files and data and give workers fast access to them.
In tech speak, Pillar makes redundant disk arrays,boxes full of disks that speed access to stored data. The company also provides service and software.
Pillar pitches its products as a way to secure data in case of a natural or manmade disaster.
“One of the areas of great demand is replication and disaster recovery,” said Dan Camarda, Pillar’s vice president of sales for the West. “Our customers want to protect their data and some want to do it locally.”
The company is looking to tap local companies in manufacturing, financial services, healthcare and entertainment.
“There’s a very diverse base of customers here,” Camarda said. “We expect significant growth to continue down here.”
Pillar already has local ties.
It’s a reseller of some storage network devices made by Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp. and its rival, Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp. It also includes Irvine-based real estate broker O’Donnell/Atkins in its client list.
Pillar is set to go head-to-head with established players such as IBM, EMC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., Hitachi Data Systems Corp. and Network Appliance Inc.
Pillar has grown to about 550 workers.
The company didn’t disclose specific figures, but said it’s poised to double sales this year, said spokeswoman Melissa Lane.
The Irvine office will start small, with about eight employees, according to Camarda.
“The strategy that Mike and Larry laid out is they want a billion-dollar storage company that is a very large, established, long-term player in this industry,” Drago said.
To get there, Ellison is teaming it with another established player in the industry. Pillar’s disk arrays get pitched alongside Oracle’s business software. And the two companies often tag-team customers.
“We don’t resell (Oracle) software, but in a lot of cases we sell a lot of storage to Oracle customers,” Drago said. “Our systems were designed in part to perform well in Oracle’s database environment.”
Pillar benefits as well from a renewable annual budget of Ellison’s venture dollars.
“We are able to bring more resources to the party much sooner in our evolution,” Camarda said.
There isn’t yet talk of going public or being bought out, Drago said.
“A liquidity event is the direction we are heading in,” he said. “We are watching some of the other storage companies. We are not really forced to make that move sooner than we’d like to.”
