Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/08/16/zerto_b_round/

Recovery-ware startup Zerto uncloaks, scoops $15m

Virty disasterproofing brothers back in the game

By Chris Mellor

Posted in Channel, 16th August 2011 10:18 GMT

Secretive recovery software start-up Zerto has closed a $15m financing round just weeks after emerging from stealth mode.

Zerto provides VMware hypervisor-based replication enabling disaster recovery for virtualised server applications. This is more flexible, Zerto says, than relegating replication to storage arrays, and is thought to be useful to cloud service providers.

Typically storage array-level replication involves similar arrays at either side of the replication link. Not so with Zerto software. Also, if hypervisor-based replication takes off, storage array vendors will lose their own replication revenues.

A second or B-round of funding has taken place and total funding now stands at $21m. Ziv Kedem, Zerto co-founder and CEO, said: "The Series B funding round helps Zerto ramp up to meet demand from direct and channel customers." Setting up a direct sales operation from scratch does cost money.

What goes around comes around

InMage, which makes application replication software, has just swapped its CEO and says it sees opportunities for more business, implying it has been under-achieving.

NetApp closed down an any-source-to-any-target replication product line in 2008. Its Snap Mirror for Open Systems was based on the 2006 acquisition of Topio technology. At the time Topio was competing with Kashya, which was founded by Ziv Kedem and his brother Oded, who both subsequently founded Zerto.

Kashya, by the way, was sold to EMC in 2006. EMC's RecoverPoint product uses Kashya technology.

Replication has not been an easy furrow to plough but the brothers Kedem have done so successfully. They are now hoping that Zerto will replicate Kashya's success, and bring them a second replication fortune.

The Zerto Virtual Replication product is now available. ®