reduxio award write up

2017 North American Data Storage & Management Technology Innovation Award

BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH

© Frost & Sullivan 2017 2 “We Accelerate Growth”

Contents

Background and Company Performance ........................................................................ 3

Industry Challenges .............................................................................................. 3

Technology Attributes and Future Business Value ..................................................... 4

Conclusion........................................................................................................... 7

Significance of Technology Innovation .......................................................................... 8

Understanding Technology Innovation .......................................................................... 8

Key Benchmarking Criteria .................................................................................... 9

Best Practice Award Analysis for Reduxio Systems .......................................................... 9

Decision Support Scorecard ................................................................................... 9

Technology Attributes ......................................................................................... 10

Future Business Value ......................................................................................... 10

Decision Support Matrix ...................................................................................... 11

Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching, Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices ................................................................................................................. 12

The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards ..................... 13

Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 13

About Frost & Sullivan .............................................................................................. 13



Background and Company Performance

Industry Challenges

The data storage industry is undergoing transformational change driven by the explosion in

the amount of data that enterprises need to store and manage. As per the Frost & Sullivan’s

analysis, it is predicted the amount of data stored and managed by enterprises will soon be

skyrocketing as it will surpass Exabyte ranges in the near future. As enterprises, mid-range

companies, and small-scale businesses grapple today with this challenge; the focus has

shifted from data storage to data management.

Organizations are not only facing the challenge of explosive data growth, but also the fact

that digital systems have evolved from being components in the background of business

operations to being considered mission-critical systems and at the very heart of business

operations. In spite of the exponential data growth, IT budgets have not kept pace, with

only nominal increases, driving IT staff to seek out cost-effective solutions. From a storage

perspective, there’s an increased awareness that there are different classes of storage is

required to support different business applications to ensure that the infrastructure is

optimal from a cost and performance standpoint. As the amount of data and its importance

to businesses has grown, there is an increased focus on data protection in order to prevent

data loss and/or recover from issues such as data corruption, human error, and application

bugs. In addition, the rising prevalence and sophistication of malware attacks, such as

ransomware (e.g., WannaCry), have created a profound sense of vulnerability among

enterprises, which have been victimized by these cyber-attacks, further exacerbating the

challenges with data protection. Organizations are increasingly demanding better SLA’s, in

the form of low or near-zero RPO/RTO’s from storage and backup vendors. The ability to

have zero downtime and no data loss in case of an incident is challenging with conventional

data protection solutions, with time-consuming management, operational complexity, and

the high cost of storage infrastructure.

Storage technology providers, both incumbents and, emerging vendors, have come to

market with new solutions to store, protect, and manage data. Organizations have shown

an increasing willingness to adopt new solutions and approaches to improve data storage

infrastructure. However, these solutions continue to have some or all of the following

shortcomings:

Silos of capacity and capability: Capacity silos always result in inefficiency as each

silo introduces waste and increases management complexity. Capability silos

introduce multiple points of management, which increases management overhead

and operational costs.

Limits on RPO and RTO: When multiple silos are present in the storage infrastructure

data copy is required between systems to create copies for protection and for

restore. This limits the minimum RPO and RTO that can be achieved without



resorting to expensive synchronous replication. In addition, movement of data

creates efficiencies since data might be stored in optimized form on system will have

to be restored to its original form for transfer and then re-optimized on the target

system.

Agents and Integration - This presents an increasingly significant challenge as

environments become more complex and the number of applications keeps growing.

Also on the primary storage system, the process of data capture can affect the

overall storage performance as data accesses for data protection competes with the

requirements of the applications running on the system.

Founded in 2012 by veterans of the data storage industry, Reduxio Systems focuses on

simplifying data management and data protection by enabling the convergence of primary

and secondary storage management into a single platform. Reduxio provides primary

storage for applications, with a set of novel integrated data protection capabilities -

eliminating a number of the challenges

of existing solutions. With Reduxio

customers can build self-protecting

enterprise-grade storage infrastructure

that is simpler and cost-effective to

deploy, manage and protect.

Technology Attributes and Future Business Value

Visionary Innovation

Reduxio’s founding team has, on average, over 20 years of storage industry experience

with major vendors like NetApp, IBM and Dell/EMC. According to them, the driving force

behind the creation of Reduxio was their observation that long-established vendors were

unwilling to obsolete their siloed architectures and solutions despite the fact that they

grow increasingly ineffective and unnecessarily complex with each passing year. This led

to the determination that an entirely new architecture was required, that would eliminate

the need for snapshots in favor of a time-based approach that would dramatically improve

data recovery granularity and timeliness, while drastically reducing administrative

overhead.

Source: Reduxio Systems



Unlike the volume centric architecture of

traditional storage systems, the Reduxio

architecture is data-centric with volumes

and offset within volumes being

attributes of data. This provides

complete virtualization between the

logical view of storage and the physical

storage and enables the unique set of

data management capabilities that

Reduxio has to manage, protect, and

provision storage. This architecture

which is delivered in the form of Reduxio’s TimeOS storage operating system allows the

unification of primary and secondary data management into a single platform.

Reduxio introduced the HX550 hybrid storage system at the VMWorld 2015 convention,

where it received the award for Best of VMWorld. Reduxio launched the patented

TimeOS™ solution as a storage appliance, and they were able to acquire 100+ customers

in their first full year, which is quite remarkable for a newly emerging vendor in the data

center space. Reduxio achieved product/market fit very rapidly, validating this new

architectural approach across a broad range of industries and use cases, for both large

global enterprises and SMEs.

Product Impact

Reduxio’s flagship product HX550 is a hybrid flash storage system that enables the

convergence of primary and secondary storage management into a single platform that

can allow organizations to simplify their storage infrastructure and improve overall

efficiency. In June 2017, with the release of TimeOS v3, Reduxio introduced new

capabilities that further simplify the end-to-end management of application data. The

Reduxio solution offers the following one of a kind core capabilities:

BackDating™: A patented technology that makes schedule-based snapshots

obsolete and allows recovery of any application's data at 1 second granularity. This

unique capability replaces snapshots for a wide variety of use cases including

recovery of production applications, rapid provisioning of images, and creating

copies to support test and development. The one second RPO supported by

BackDating makes this best mechanism to restore critical information after a

successful ransomware or malware attack.

NoRestore™: Integrates copy data management natively into the primary storage.

Based on user configured policies, NoRestore saves continuous incremental copies

of data on a shareable remote repository. The repository can be any iSCSI storage

device or an object store that may be local or in the public cloud. Any Reduxio

instance can attach to the repository and restore any point in time of any volume

Source: Reduxio Systems



available on the repository instantaneously. This “near-Zero” RTO is achieved

using Reduxio’s virtualization technology that allows a volume to be instantiated by

reading just the metadata. NoRestore today supports a minimum RTO of 5

minutes. NoRestore can be used to eliminate legacy backup and replication

solutions for disaster recovery, enable data sharing between distributed sites to

support development and test, and to retire applications to the public cloud.

NoMigrate™: An advanced data migration and data mobility technology built into

the TimeOS™ operating system leverages the global virtualization of data e to

enable instantaneous migration of applications and large data sets from third-party

storage systems or between Reduxio systems. It eliminates the complexity of

balancing workloads and data, migration of data between sites, and the

decommissioning of legacy systems.

Application Diversity

Reduxio supports a broad range of core enterprise applications with its storage solution.

The high performance primary storage along with the data management capabilities have

allowed Reduxio to successfully address the storage needs of a range of critical workloads

including databases (Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, etc), virtual environments (VMware,

Hyper-V, KVM, etc.), enterprise applications (SAP, etc.,), private cloud (OpenStack, etc),

and for application development. Reduxio has installed a total of 200+ systems worldwide

with more than 150 notable enterprise customers and has seen increased adoption across

various industries, highlighting the value of its solution. As their installed base grows,

Reduxio is moving ahead with its plans to offer a software-only solution.

Industry Impact

Reduxio’s primary objective was to distinguish itself by being the first storage vendor to

deliver near zero RPO and RTO data recovery with infinite granularity, with a focus on

radically simplifying storage operations by combining primary and secondary storage

under a single platform. The company has committed itself to human-centric design, with

a special focus on an extremely intuitive user experience, drawing on best practices in

human factors and leveraging game designers. A constant refrain from Reduxio users is

how much they love the interface, something we have never heard from storage system

users before in our many years of researching this space. As a result, organizations that

have deployed Reduxio’s systems can assign junior-level storage administrators who can

grasp the data storage and management aspects with ease, compared with the need for

experienced data administrators for competing systems, which often require

administrators to undergo significant training and certification before they become

proficient.



For its design focus, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Reduxio’s thought leadership in

reinventing the way that organizations think about storage.

Conclusion

Reduxio has successfully built a storage solution that can manage different classes of

media designed for today’s complex hybrid environments, and is one of the first vendors

to integrate data protection and copy data management capabilities into a platform that

provides primary storage for applications. It has a flash-first architecture, always-on

global deduplication, compression, and rapid relocation of data among multiple tiers,

always ensuring an optimal price / performance trade-off.

With its strong overall performance, Reduxio Systems has earned Frost & Sullivan’s 2017

Technology Innovation Award.



Significance of Technology Innovation

Ultimately, growth in any organization depends upon finding new ways to excite the

market and upon maintaining a long-term commitment to innovation. At its core,

technology innovation, or any other type of innovation, can only be sustained with

leadership in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and

differentiating from the competition.

Understanding Technology Innovation

Technology innovation begins with a spark of creativity that is systematically pursued,

developed, and commercialized. That spark can result from a successful partnership, a

productive in-house innovation group, or a bright-minded individual. Regardless of the

source, the success of any new technology is ultimately determined by its innovativeness

and its impact on the business as a whole.



Key Benchmarking Criteria

For the Technology Innovation Award, Frost & Sullivan analysts independently evaluated

two key factors—Technology Attributes and Future Business Value—according to the

criteria identified below.

Technology Attributes

Criterion 1: Industry Impact

Criterion 2: Product Impact

Criterion 3: Scalability

Criterion 4: Visionary Innovation

Criterion 5: Application Diversity

Future Business Value

Criterion 1: Financial Performance

Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition

Criterion 3: Technology Licensing

Criterion 4: Brand Loyalty

Criterion 5: Human Capital

Best Practices Award Analysis for Reduxio Systems

Decision Support Scorecard

To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance

categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Scorecard. This tool

allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze performance, according to

the key benchmarking criteria listed in the previous section, and to assign ratings on that

basis. The tool follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation.

Ratings guidelines are illustrated below.

RATINGS GUIDELINES

The Decision Support Scorecard is organized by Technology Attributes and Future

Business Value (i.e., these are the overarching categories for all 10 benchmarking criteria;

the definitions for each criterion are provided beneath the scorecard.). The research team

confirms the veracity of this weighted scorecard through sensitivity analysis, which

confirms that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a

significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies.



The results of this analysis are shown below. To remain unbiased and to protect the

interests of all organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key

participants as Competitor 2 and Competitor 3.

Measurement of 1–10 (1 = poor; 10 = excellent)

Technology Innovation

Technology

Attributes

Future

Business Value Average Rating

Reduxio Systems 9 9 9.0

Competitor 2 8 7 7.5

Competitor 3 7 6 6.5


Criterion 1: Industry Impact

Requirement: Technology enables the pursuit of groundbreaking ideas, contributing to the

betterment of the entire industry.

Criterion 2: Product Impact

Requirement: Specific technology helps enhance features and functionalities of the entire

product line for the company.

Criterion 3: Scalability

Requirement: Technology is scalable, enabling new generations of products over time,

with increasing levels of quality and functionality.

Criterion 4: Visionary Innovation

Requirement: Specific new technology represents true innovation based on a deep

understanding of future needs and applications.

Criterion 5: Application Diversity

Requirement: New technology serves multiple products, multiple applications, and

multiple user environments.

Future Business Value

Criterion 1: Financial Performance

Requirement: Potential is high for strong financial performance in terms of revenues,

operating margins, and other relevant financial metrics.

Criterion 2: Customer Acquisition

Requirement: Specific technology enables acquisition of new customers, even as it

enhances value to current customers.

Criterion 3: Technology Licensing

Requirement: New technology displays great potential to be licensed across many sectors

and applications, thereby driving incremental revenue streams.



Criterion 4: Brand Loyalty

Requirement: New technology enhances the company’s brand, creating and/or nurturing

brand loyalty.

Criterion 5: Human Capital

Requirement: Customer impact is enhanced through the leverage of specific technology,

translating into positive impact on employee morale and retention.

Decision Support Matrix

Once all companies have been evaluated according to the Decision Support Scorecard,

analysts then position the candidates on the matrix shown below, enabling them to

visualize which companies are truly breakthrough and which ones are not yet operating at

best-in-class levels.

High

Low

Low High

Fu

ture B

usin

ess V

alu

e


Reduxio Systems

Competitor 2

Competitor 3



Best Practices Recognition: 10 Steps to Researching,

Identifying, and Recognizing Best Practices

Frost & Sullivan analysts follow a 10-step process to evaluate Award candidates and

assess their fit with select best practice criteria. The reputation and integrity of the

Awards are based on close adherence to this process.

STEP OBJECTIVE KEY ACTIVITIES OUTPUT

1 Monitor, target, and screen

Identify Award recipient candidates from around the globe

Conduct in-depth industry research

Identify emerging sectors Scan multiple geographies

Pipeline of candidates who potentially meet all best-practice criteria

2 Perform 360-degree research

Perform comprehensive, 360-degree research on all candidates in the pipeline

Interview thought leaders and industry practitioners

Assess candidates’ fit with best-practice criteria

Rank all candidates

Matrix positioning of all candidates’ performance relative to one another

3

Invite thought leadership in best practices

Perform in-depth examination of all candidates

Confirm best-practice criteria Examine eligibility of all

candidates Identify any information gaps

Detailed profiles of all ranked candidates

4

Initiate research director review

Conduct an unbiased evaluation of all candidate profiles

Brainstorm ranking options Invite multiple perspectives

on candidates’ performance Update candidate profiles

Final prioritization of all eligible candidates and companion best-practice positioning paper

5

Assemble panel of industry experts

Present findings to an expert panel of industry thought leaders

Share findings Strengthen cases for

candidate eligibility Prioritize candidates

Refined list of prioritized Award candidates

6

Conduct

global industry review

Build consensus on Award candidates’ eligibility

Hold global team meeting to review all candidates

Pressure-test fit with criteria Confirm inclusion of all

eligible candidates

Final list of eligible Award candidates, representing

success stories worldwide

7 Perform quality check

Develop official Award consideration materials

Perform final performance benchmarking activities

Write nominations Perform quality review

High-quality, accurate, and creative presentation of nominees’ successes

8

Reconnect with panel of industry experts

Finalize the selection of the best-practice Award recipient

Review analysis with panel Build consensus Select recipient

Decision on which company performs best against all best-practice criteria

9 Communicate recognition

Inform Award recipient of Award recognition

Present Award to the CEO Inspire the organization for

continued success Celebrate the recipient’s

performance

Announcement of Award and plan for how recipient can use the Award to enhance the brand

10 Take strategic action

Upon licensing, company is able to share Award news with stakeholders and customers

Coordinate media outreach Design a marketing plan Assess Award’s role in future

strategic planning

Widespread awareness of recipient’s Award status among investors, media personnel, and employees



The Intersection between 360-Degree Research and Best Practices Awards

Research Methodology

Frost & Sullivan’s 360-degree research

methodology represents the analytical

rigor of our research process. It offers a

360-degree-view of industry challenges,

trends, and issues by integrating all 7 of

Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies.

Too often companies make important

growth decisions based on a narrow

understanding of their environment,

leading to errors of both omission and

commission. Successful growth strategies

are founded on a thorough understanding

of market, technical, economic, financial,

customer, best practices, and demographic

analyses. The integration of these research

disciplines into the 360-degree research

methodology provides an evaluation

platform for benchmarking industry

participants and for identifying those performing at best-in-class levels.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth

and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's

Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined

research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation

of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages more than 50 years of

experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses, and the

investment community from 45 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership,

please visit http://www.frost.com.

360-DEGREE RESEARCH: SEEING ORDER IN

THE CHAOS

http://www.frost.com/

reduxio award write up

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