The Bocada Blog

No Dog Days for DPM

While the US labors through what seems to be one of the hottest summers on record, the withering effects of the dog days have had no impact on the increasing excitement around the data protection management space. In fact, our summary Q2 media scorecard shows that total interest in the space is up, way up in fact over Q1 by almost a double, as measured by the total number of articles published in the storage and related media. Great news quite literally as it shows that prospects, customers, partners, analysts and the media are all turning up the volume on the value of DPM solutions, the players, and technologies.

And while we are on the subject of volume, the numbers tell us that subscription pricing is a hit. Early in Q2, we launched BocadaNOW-- a program that combines simplified selling and deployment of our product with a straightforward subscription licensing model. As we said then, and continue to say now, simplified engagements with prospective customers enables us to rebate cost back to customers in the form of lower everday pricing via subscription. Gauging by our funnel activity, companies in the mid-market all the way to the enterprise are embracing subscription pricing and licensing as a way to reduce procurement and total out of pocket costs, while matching the timing of costs to the benefit of using our solution. And if Bocada continues to hold up our part of the bargain, we stand to benefit from recurring renewal revenue in the future. Keep watching this space for updates.

Drake

From EMC to Bocada

As I approach the hundred and twenty day mark of my joining Bocada as head of product management, I thought I would share my thoughts on my decision to join this team. With 15+ years in the software and storage businesses, I wanted to leverage my experience and focus on the storage industry—still a vastly changing, dynamic area within IT. More importantly, though, was my desire to find a dynamic software company-- one with great market potential and a laser focus on solving real problems for the enterprise customer. To me, that meant the challenge of finding a customer-oriented company with a talented executive team and a track record of “walking the walk” when it comes to their customers, including their willingness to commit financial resources to investment in R&D and products. And, if that wasn’t a tall enough order, I wanted to find a company based in Seattle, my home for the last 10 plus years. For those in the industry, you know that Seattle and storage aren’t synonymous, though we have great local companies like Isilon, ADIC, along with the regional technology centers of major storage software vendors.

I am proud to say that my search ended when I discovered Bocada, a great team of people focused on building software that provides enterprise storage managers and IT professionals with the information necessary to do their jobs. Every day, I see that commitment reinforced in the way we do all we can to help our customers achieve their goals, and in our willingness to live and die by the value our software creates—not a common attribute of enterprise software companies to say the least.

Currently, I am in the middle of my mission to personally visit our customers and partners to understand how Bocada is solving current issues, and find new opportunities to help them. When I am done, I will be back to share my perspectives on what they are thinking.

Dorothy

Building a Category?

Any experienced tech veteran will tell you that building a new company in a new category is no easy feat. It's hard enough for a new entrant into an established market to get customers to take notice. Building category as a new company is a huge challenge, and frankly most don't succeed. Just look at the bone pile of companies out of business, and the bruises on their investors.

Bocada has been incredibly fortunate to have bucked this trend, riding on the shoulders of great customers, like Agilent Technologies who became our first major enterprise customer, way back in January of 2002. Today we find ourselves with more than 200 customers worldwide, including many of the largest, and best run IT environments in the world across the banking, telecom, life sciences, oil and gas, consumer, and technology industries.

Lately, the signs point to recognition that our category has emerged. Major storage software and hardware vendors, as well as new upstarts have entered the fray. After 3 plus years of pioneering every sale, Bocada is now being invited to the table by informed prospects. Moreover, members of the media such as Chris Mellor have begun to ask deeper questions about where we win and why, and the analyst community, lead by The Taneja Group and The Enterprise Strategy Group have validated that customers need to seek a solution to data protection management. And while there may be some question of exactly how to name the category ("Data Protection Management," Secondary Storage Services Management," and so on), one thing is for sure, 2006 will be a defining year for this market.

Drake

Welcome!

It is my pleasure to personally welcome you to the first Bocada Weblog.  It seems like only yesterday that we launched Bocada around a group of dedicated people determined to improve the lives of those unsung heroes that every day are responsible for protecting the critical data on which our businesses and government organizations rely.  We believe above all else that by helping to empower you, the people that provide these services, we will make a difference both to your organizations and also to your personal success. 

Working closely together we have made great progress.  Today, thousands of individuals in hundreds of leading organizations across the globe make better, more informed decisions about how to more efficiently and effectively protect data, educate and share results with their coworkers and customers and improve their reputations within their organizations.  The result has been better protected data at a much lower cost.  Even more exciting to us, the result has been hundreds of service awards, promotions, raises and more rapid career advancement for our users.   

The Bocada team recognizes that the world of data protection is evolving rapidly – new technologies, new processes, new requirements and even new business models will continue to increase complexity and bring new challenges.  We also recognize that whatever the security, methodology or technology implemented to manage and protect data, the ultimate success today and for as far as we can see rests with you. 

So, we aim to make this Weblog work for you—the professionals that are building careers managing and protecting data.  We hope that we can help bring everyone in the data protection community closer together and encourage you to share best practices whether relating to data protection management, getting the most from your vendors, or even getting ahead in your jobs.  Moreover, we want your feedback on how to help you achieve your goals, and whether or not we are doing enough to support you.

Thanks for listening.  All the best, Mark