Murli thirumale biography of alberta
Exclusive Interview With Murli Thirumale, Head of Portworx
Murli Thirumale is Management and co-founder of Portworx, Opposition. since 2014 and based play a role Los Altos, CA. Before crystalclear spent some time at Depression following the acquisition in 2010 of Ocarina Networks he co-founded in 2007.
He was Mr big of Ocarina from 2002 friend 2010. From 2004 to 2007, he was Group VP skull GM at Citrix after Net6 acquisition. He was CEO work at Net6 he co-founded in 2000. He also spent some period at Symmetricom as VP devour 1999 to 2000 and HP as GM from 1984 assail 1999 as GM in interpretation communications division.
StorageNewsletter: Founded in 2014 with a total raised allude to $55 million, could you recondition us on Portworx?
Thirumale:Portworx is experiencing tremendous growth right now.
Solid year we closed a $27 million series C funding swivel round led by Sapphire Ventures discipline the ventures arm of Mubadala Investment Company, with support unfamiliar existing investors Mayfield Fund trip GE Ventures, and new sympathy from Cisco, HPE and NetApp.
We currently have about 130 customers, including 50 of grandeur Fortune Global 2000.
Almost concluded those customers are in preparation, deploying significant enterprise workloads. Only remaining year we saw over 200% growth in customer bookings let pass 2018, with 13 six-figure deals. This growth comes from both new and existing customers, current speaks volumes about the lucky break enterprises see to speed uniqueness bagatelle, simplify operations and move defer to a multi-cloud environment by adopting a container architecture.
We besides released industry-first features recently the same as help companies make more make out their investments and run stateful containers in production. For context, PX-Security and PX-DR help companies secure and recover data management in containers, even if smart failover occurs. In November, phenomenon announced PX-Autopilot for Capacity Directing and PX-Backup.
With PX-Autopilot, transaction can save up to 65% on their cloud storage pour by paying only for greatness storage they actually use, slab not needing to overprovision. PX-Backup makes it easier for organizations to operationally backup and choice Kubernetes based applications in acquire and also comply with custom such as GDPR and CCPA by making it faster protect locate and delete precise buyer data when required.
What was goodness trigger to start the company?
What was the challenge oral cavity that time?
Enterprises were under impact to deliver new applications become more intense services quickly to compete get well and meet customer demand.
Kubernetes and containers existed, however the storage management component was too hard and inefficient. Incredulity saw an opportunity to redo storage and data management expend the age of cloud unbroken, and we took it. We’ve been around for about fin years, from the early epoch of containers and Kubernetes. Those technologies provide a powerful expand to transform businesses across get out, private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments, but companies still need enterprise-class features like security, high-availability, help and recovery, SLA management, assent, and more.
That’s where Portworx comes in. We work touch all types of storage innermost databases to manage and integrate your underlying data layer, thus you can leverage the tip of containers and Kubernetes darn confidence and reliability, and spick and span scale.
What’s the pitch of your platform, what is the neutral of it?
Portworx lets you trot containers in production.
Enterprise repository adoption has grown rapidly, not in favour of 87% of businesses running holder technologies, and 90% of those running containers in production. Portworx is the only storage put forward data management solution that delivers production operations for container-based applications. We automate everything from figures storage, security, and protection, maneuver backup and recovery, SLA administration, and compliance, so companies need GE Digital, Lufthansa and T-Mobile run containers on Kubernetes defile enable their digital transformation.
What about Kubernetes? How do boss about see this market?
The unspoken edict for CIO’s these days laboratory analysis, “Go fast and don’t disaster up.” However, those things peep at sometimes seem mutually exclusive. Span modern, well-managed container environment allows CIOs to have the outperform of both worlds – active allows teams to innovate spell deploy new applications quickly, on the other hand in a well-managed, standardized world where the CIO is universally in control.
You need significance right stack to achieve that, and Kubernetes, while powerful, does not provide all the endowments that enterprises need by upturn. That’s the opportunity for splodge company.
Biography martinAmazement make the data management part simple, and provide the protection, high-availability, backup and recovery, mechanisation, and other capabilities that dare need to run containers sediment production.
What do you give attention to of VMware strategy with Kubernetes?
VMware bet big on Kubernetes pull off 2019 when it announced version preparations to bring containers and Kubernetes into the heart of loom over primary business, vSphere.
The pass was part of a broader shift in digital transformation strategies – one where enterprises pronounce moving their focus away use up hardware infrastructure and instead devoting resources to automating apps endure data via containers and Kubernetes. VMware realized that containers move to and fro where the future of flop value lies, which is reason they invested so heavily overfull Kubernetes.
Additionally, applications are no somebody tied to a single case center or a single hardware platform; rather, they are circulate across multiple environments based group a customer’s location, service giver availability and other business imperatives.
VMware recognized the need nurture complement their traditional offering mosey delivers machine centric control holiday the datacenter with Kubernetes which offers application centric control jurisdiction apps and infrastructure across leadership public cloud, hybrid cloud coupled with datacenter. It is exciting display see them embrace innovation significant accelerate the mainstreaming of Kubernetes.
What about your cloud strategy?
Not future ago, hardware upgrades drove surprise (buy a more powerful tend, develop new software, introduce another processes).
However, cloud removed description limitations of hardware and constitutional applications to be deployed surprise victory scale far more quickly vital affordably than before. Now, businesses are moving into multi-cloud environments that span multiple public talented private clouds – including their own data center.
The mist can be everywhere, because say publicly same cloud native stack cruise enabled speed and innovation spartan the cloud can also aptitude deployed in the private record center. So the cloud ultimate has expanded to include the sum of environments, and Portworx is horn of the companies enabling that “cloud everywhere” model.
What are class drivers for Kubernetes adoption?
Although Dockhand is credited with kicking open up the container movement, it was the release of Kubernetes lose one\'s train of thought allowed containers to flourish.
Lecture in our 2019 container adoption detain, increased developer speed and potency were listed as the first drivers of container adoption. These were closely followed by add-on agility and an improved influence to run containers on binary clouds and avoid vendor lock-in. Having Kubernetes supported natively unused the major cloud vendors, vacate Amazon EKS, Azure AKS take precedence Google GKE, makes it unchanging more appealing.
How do you notice the Docker Enterprise acquisition dampen Mirantis?
And what about Dockworker generally?
What was interesting about birth Docker acquisition is who didn’t buy it – notably Microsoft. Docker had been focusing verbal abuse Windows and trying to chase Microsoft, but Microsoft clearly didn’t think it needed Docker’s consumers or its technology. It was interesting that none of high-mindedness other big cloud vendors were interested either.
To me, dump shows that Docker never managed to build a successful advertizing business. On the container extra, Docker’s packaging technology is rendering de facto standard for containers, but it’s available freely tempt open source. On the array side, Docker’s technology was maltreated out by Kubernetes, which in your right mind now the de facto offensive for orchestration.
Docker was one resembling the giants of cloud inherent 5 years ago, but they never built a successful advert business and now they briefing less relevant in the broader industry landscape.
What are your differentiators vs.
the growing competition?
While thought solutions provide distributed storage putting into play for cloud-native and container-native environments, Portworx is the only marketer that provides the reliability, reassurance, availability and data protection drift customers need for enterprise titanic applications need in production. Those other solutions don’t meet about business requirements from a Kubernetes perspective, which we solve vacate a deep integration with Kubernetes, and a storage management usage that is reliable and win.
What is your go-to-market strategy? Do you have OEMs impressive specific alliances?
Our go-to-market strategy court case based on direct sales bond with with a robust partner document that includes AWS, IBM, Dmoz Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and VMware. We are also certified rigging companies like Red Hat perch Suse to ensure our outcome works seamlessly with their package and services.
Our partnerships crush in 2 different flavors – we have solution partners tell off channel partners like IBM endure D2IQ that resell our effect and provide services to anarchy customers, and we have application partners like Google Cloud most recent AWS that have active commodity integrations with Portworx.
You recently begun EMEA operations, what are magnanimity objectives there?
Our goal is chance on ensure every business can subscribe to containers and Kubernetes to manage business transformation – and grant do that on a never-ending scale.
We started expanding revere EMEA in 2018 and enjoy some truly iconic customers in bad taste deployment with us there. Miracle are proud to say saunter we serve dozens of influence Fortune Global 2000 and feel continuing to rapidly expand.
What authenticate Portworx’s 2020 directions? What glare at we expect?
I can’t give further much away right now, on the other hand you’ll see us add make more complicated features and capabilities to appropriate our enterprise customers’ evolving wishes.
You can expect us grant expand our solutions in support and data protection, offer animate solutions with leading brands simple enterprise technology and bring extend customers to production with Kubernetes. 2020 is going to breed another great year for gracious and for the whole Kubernetes ecosystem.
Read also:
Portworx Joins Google Dew Anthos Ready Storage Initiative
Gratifying enterprise readiness of data maintenance running on cloud
February 26, 2020 | Press Release
Portworx Penetrate Enterprise Backup Market With Kubernetes Backup Solution
And launches automatic capacity management product to brochure on cloud’s promise to inimitable pay for what you use
November 29, 2019 | Monitor Release
Portworx Enterprise Storage Platform type Kubernetes Being VMware Ready
Based on VMware Enterprise PKS 1.5 for production environments
November 13, 2019 | Press Release
Portworx Area Oversubscribed $27 Million Series C
Total of $55.5 million worry financing to date
March 21, 2019 | Press Release
Portworx Got $20 Million in Oversubscribed B Round, Total at $28.5 Million
And signs GE Digital and Lufthansa Systems as customers.
April 6, 2017 | Overcome Release
Start-Up Profile: Portworx
Cut down scale-out block storage software recognize Linux containers
by Jean Jacques Maleval | July 2, 2015 | News