Data management startup Hammerspace has unveiled an enhanced version of its global file system, and completed their transition to a 100% channel strategy with a new channel SVP and a new partner program.
Today, data management startup Hammerspace is making a trio of announcements. They have announced the Global Data Environment, an updating of their global file system, that connects users and their data in all environments. They are also announcing new senior executive appointments – Jim Choumas, VP of Channel Sales, Chris Bowen, SVP of Global Sales, and Molly Presley, SVP of Marketing. And they are announcing a new channel program, their Partnerspace channel partner program.
Hammerspace makes a global file system that abstracts all of the metadata from the data, regardless of where the data sits on any storage product, then puts it into a file system and lets it be managed through one global namespace, at a granular level, while also automating and orchestrating the movement and management of that data
Molly Presley, SVP of Marketing at Hammerspace
“Our CEO [David Flynn] had a vision of breaking through the issues which had plagued the file and NAS industries however,” said Molly Presley, SVP of Marketing at Hammerspace. “Hammerspace tackles this really hard problem – making the data and file system accessible. Customers have been struggling with how to get data to users and get users access to the network. What Global Data Environment solves is creating a data environment that connects users and applications independently of data access.”
Flynn was the founder of flash pioneer Fusion-io, which was acquired by SanDisk in 2014. He then founded Primary Data, immediately after, which received $100 million in investor money, then cratered in 2018 without ever bringing a product to market. Hammerspace is the successor company, founded in 2018. Since it uses the technology that Primary Data was developing, it means that their technology is somewhat more mature than that of a typical 2018 startup.
The Hammerspace name, probably more familiar to past generations than the present one refers to the invisible nether that cartoon characters once used to extract objects out of nowhere. The anvil that that Bugs Bunny reaches into to drop into Yosemite Sam’s arms to send him crashing to earth from the top of a diving platform would be a good example. Hammerspace sees themselves as creating a similar kind of value for customers – creating value out of the nether.
The Global Data Environment that Hammerspace is announcing today is not a new offering, but an enhancement and extension of what they have already been selling.
“It’s a continuum,” Presley said. “We have been adding to the technology. We have worked hard on the universal data access layer, and we also needed parallel NFS to tie into Snowflake, and into Databricks in the future. We now have all the pieces done, and the full set of global file system and orchestration tools. We take all the functionality of a secure web gateway, a data mover, an automated data service, and expansive data storage. What’s groundbreaking is doing all of this, and without requiring forklift upgrades. We don’t have to move the data, because we use the metadata. Our messaging here is how we bring all these together into a new category of product.”
In addition to the product announcement itself, Hammerspace is also announcing the appointment of new senior executives, and a new channel program. They have named Jim Choumas as VP of Channel Sales, Chris Bowen as SVP of Global Sales, and Presley as SVP of Marketing.
Hammerspace had both a channel chief and a channel before, both introduced in 2019, but in retrospect it was too early.
Jim Choumas, VP of Channel Sales, Hammerspace
“There were a lot of holes in the original program that had not been filled,” Choumas said. “It was very much a limited program. There wasn’t a good strategy for things like lead generation, for determining what a guaranteed margin will be, or even for lead generation rules.”
The sentiment of the company overall then wasn’t as clear that channel had to be the strategy, Choumas said.
“The conversations I have had with Chris [Bowen] and David [Flynn] is that we had to embrace 100% channel” he emphasized. “We’ve had 100% channel since I’ve been here. The CEO has decided that it is time to expand this Go-to-Market.”
The new Hammerspace Partnerspace program has all the needed components to fully enable partners,” Choumas stressed. “It’s a very robust program, which focuses on how we best bring value to customers through the channel, and a 100% channel strategy. We bring that value to the VAR in a variety of different ways, which let partners become more advisory in conversations with customers, because they are not just selling the same old stuff.”
Choumas said that Hammerspace was around 30 partners in North America right now. That’s good coverage at this stage. We have both horizontal and vertical focus among our partners, and we are talking with some very big names.”
