Wham, bam, thank you SAM: $7.8m for storage technology pioneer

Storage area management (SAM) software is aimed at rationalising the distribution of data storage across the different areas of a business - from desktops to Unix servers and mainframe storage databases.

SAM is one of the new frontiers of the storage business. "Everyone's looking for something in this area," says IDC storage analyst Claus Egge. "SAM software is really going to mushroom as a result of the desire to bring these storage environments together."

InterSAN's product is based on a patented technology called Virtual DataPath, but few details are available and Egge said that it is too early to assess the technology's effectiveness.

"However, [storage guru] Kumar Malavalli is supporting this," he said, "and that's a good sign."

Nonetheless, InterSAN is a start-up, taking on some of the established names in the business. "Only if they have something really spectacular can they take these people on," said Egge.

The storage area has resisted much of the impact of the recent high-tech meltdown, and the area has seen some start-up activity.

In March, Bluearc opened for business, claiming that its network attached storage product could outpace its slower traditional rivals EMC and NetApps.

InterSan's funding round was led by Wit SoundView Ventures and includes Alliance Ventures and Morgan Keegan & Company. InterSAN will use the money to complete product development on their SAM solution and install the first beta testing customers.