The FalconStor Ride: a Year in Review
Data protection solutions provider FalconStor has seen a lot of ups and downs in the past 6 months, ever since it first launched the FalconStor Network Storage Server (NSS) SAN Accelerator for VMware View(TM). The SSD-enhanced storage solution was launched back when FlaconStor was just another hot start-up, and not involved with improper payments associated with ReiJane Huai. Now that the year is coming to an end, let’s take a reflective look at one of the cloud’s most impactful companies and how it affected the industry, with its trials and tribulations of 2010.
Former FalconStor CEO, Chairman and President ReiJane Huai unexpectedly left office in light of a scandal involving improper payments. This alongside an investigation caused the firm’s shares to drop by almost 50% in the day of the news break. The appointment of new interim CEO James McNiel followed soon as well.
Not too long after this very uncomfortable ‘incident’ the company had to face, it embarked on what seemed a new growth chapter with its HP win, one which made the FalconStor Network storage Server (NSS) a part of HP’s Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery service.
However, even in light of the new deal with HP, bad news came shortly after. In its Q3 which we covered here losses were found summing up to $26.4 million, which resulted only $19 million in revenue; $2.1 million less than in 2009.
Despite of some very disappointing outcomes, Jim McNie sat down for an interview shortly after the appointment of a new FalconStor VP. McNie discussed the past and future of his firm, and commented on former CEO’s Huai’s actions. He revealed his vision for FalconStor as well, which include BlueStone, a pioneering all-inclusive data protection set.
If FalconStor will manage to present the market with a sufficiently attractive offering – and be able to select their executive leadership more proficently – they may be able to compete in the ever growing and evolving data protection market. Nonetheless, even scandals aside, it will require some serious investments around time and resources.
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