Wasabi: High-Speed Hot Cloud Storage
How Wasabi is enabling businesses to do more with their data storage.
Companies of all kinds are making the switch from keeping critical business data in remote data centers and local storage to cloud storage.
Cloud storage typically comes in two flavors: hot and cold. “Hot cloud storage” is used for data that needs to be regularly available and accessible, while “cold cloud storage” is ideal for information that doesn’t need to be available in the short-term.
For actively growing enterprises that use large amounts of data, this can translate into astronomical data storage and tier management costs. AVG portfolio company Wasabi is working to change that. Wasabi is a Boston-based cloud storage company founded by the CEO, CTO, and founding technology team of Carbonite. The company provides open, reliable, and easy-to-use cloud storage that is compatible with Amazon’s S3 API at a fraction of the cost.
Data Storage Made Simple, Fast, and Economical
Simplicity and transparency are at the heart of Wasabi. Taking from their previous experience founding and growing Carbonite, the Wasabi team aims for an easy customer-facing experience, while pushing the heavy lifting to the cloud in the background. Wasabi offers a single-tier approach that removes many barriers to entry—in particular the confusion caused by forced limitations of data tiers from providers like Amazon. Wasabi’s approach allows customers and IT professionals to focus on storage and functionality, rather than pricing/set-up confusion.
Wasabi also offers an Amazon S3-compliant user interface for storage applications, gateways, and other platforms. That means all existing S3 storage management applications and tools work seamlessly with Wasabi’s solution, providing an easy transition. However, Wasabi’s storage solution is six times faster than S3, and only one-fifth the price.
The team’s experience and domain expertise is evident as the company continues to hit milestones and grow. Their existing customer base ranges across an impressive number of industries and includes CBS, NetGear, Penn State University, Yale, and Cornell.
How We’re Involved
Alumni Ventures Group deployed capital in Wasabi’s Series B funding round led by existing investor Forestay Capital. AVG’s sponsoring fund was Blue Ivy Ventures (for Yale alumni and friends), with participation from Triphammer Ventures (for Cornell alumni and friends), Purple Arch Ventures (for Northwestern alumni and friends), and AVG’s Total Access Fund.