Kumar Goswami, CEO and Co-founder of Komprise, shares his thoughts on recent accomplishments of the company and what lies ahead as customers expand use cases from unstructured data management savings to value through automating data workflows to cloud analytics, AI and ML tools.
Komprise was just included for the first time in the Inc. 5000 list which recognizes the fastest growing private companies in the United States. What is the significance of this achievement?
KG: We’re creating something new: a new way to manage your data. The timing is right. Organizations are drowning in data but old habits are hard to break. Many IT directors still simply buy more storage to address the issue. Others are trying to get to the cloud but don’t have the tools or the training to get the data there efficiently and in an optimized manner.
What we’ve done at Komprise is make it easy. Our solution makes it easy to get insight into your data, see how fast it’s growing, who’s growing it and show you how you can save 70% of your storage cost by managing it correctly. Finally, we then help you extract value from all that data. It works across your data silos and different technologies, so you don’t have to fuss with it.
That’s why, in spite of the economic turbulence from Covid, Ukraine War and inflation, we are still growing at a fast pace. That’s why, even though it is difficult to change old ways, once an enterprise starts using Komprise they continue to find new use cases and expand the use of our platform. Making the Inc. 5000 list is a fantastic achievement and I’m so proud of what we’ve been able to do as a company to get to this mark.
What have been the most pivotal milestones for the company since its founding in 2014?
KG: Our team has a background in distributed computing. One could say, starting with a scale-out design that can handle data at massive scale is pivotal. But for us that was natural. I think the first pivotal milestone was providing analysis and insight into data. Our goal was that in the first hour, we should be able to deploy our solution and analyze your data and leave you with insight which you’ve never had before. That became much more meaningful when we then allowed customers to use the product to act on that insight. For instance, from the insight you can say “OK, move data that’s more than six months old to the cloud.” Another pivotal milestone was moving data transparently, using our patented Transparent Move Technology™ (TMT). Without using any agents, you can tier the data to the cloud and still access it from the original source as if it had never moved AND access it as a native object in the cloud to leverage cloud services like AI/ML cloud applications. This file to object duality, without agents, without getting in front of hot, mission-critical data is something no one else can tout.
What do customers consistently say is the greatest value of using Komprise Intelligent Data Management?
KG: Many customers say: “Where were you when we needed you? We’ve been looking for something like this forever.” We think differently and we came up with a way to solve a critical problem, managing massive volumes of unstructured data, in a simple, transparent way. Initially, the greatest value was quickly providing insight across disparate data silos. In a hybrid, multi-cloud IT infrastructure, delivering visibility across silos and demonstrating fast cost savings and ROI is critical. As customers take advantage of our Global File Index, Deep Analytics and our new Smart Data Workflows, we’re seeing customers get really excited about unlocking the value of the massive amounts of unstructured data by delivering the right data to the right applications and analytics tools that are driving enterprise innovation.
Komprise is a disruptive offering, introducing an independent data management layer in large enterprises where storage vendors have ruled the roost for decades. What are the challenges in selling a disruptive technology and influencing qualified prospects to make a change?
KG: The challenge has to do with breaking old habits and old ways of thinking. Too many people think data is synonymous with storage. The world has changed and today there are many different storage tiers and technologies. AWS alone has 16 or 17 tiers of storage (including third-party offerings) and they don’t all work with one another. You need something independent of these storage tiers to properly manage your data through its lifecycle. Data when collected might be at some edge data center. Once it has been selected for processing, maybe it needs to move to fast storage. After that processing is done, if you just leave it there, you’re spending far too much money. You need to probably move it to a cheap cloud tier. Then, when that project is required again, you may need to bring it back again to a fast, tier-one storage. Finally, due to compliance or internal policies, there may come a time when you need to delete it. As you can see, data is independent of storage and its importance changes with time; data must be managed independently of the storage in which it currently resides.
In the coming year, where will Komprise focus in terms of its product evolution and go to market strategy?
KG: We started with features that provide insight across all storage and improve decision-making to cut costs. Now we’re providing workflows that can be created via UI and API to develop custom data management applications. This includes selecting a custom subset of your data across all your data silos–without having to worry that each silo may require different protocols to access the data–sending it for processing to a function you’ve developed which then tags the data and later uses that tag to determine just the data to feed an AI or governance application. Our notion is that you shouldn’t need to worry about where the data is located and how to access it. You simply tell us what data you want and what you want to do with it and we’ll take care of the rest. Because of this, creating applications that could take months to years, can be done in minutes. Where we’re going and what we’re providing our customers is incredibly powerful.
Finally, what’s exciting to you about running a SaaS company in the crowded IT infrastructure space: what motivates you to come to work every day?
KG: We are doing something different. We’re going to change the way the world manages their data. That alone is very motivating. And I’ll tell you, it’s not just me. The whole company is motivated by this. It’s a struggle to change how people think and traditionally do things. But it’s very motivating to be a part of an effort to change that for the better. Some days are hard. But then there are days when customers really see the light and appreciate what we’ve helped them accomplish. That’s so satisfying and that’s what makes Komprise tick.
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