Certified ‘genius’ develops next-gen storage software, gets funding from Global Brain

The University of Tokyo has produced another funded startup. Global Brain, which is on a mini-roll after revealing it invested in wearable firm 16Labs yesterday, has now invested in IzumoBase, a company founded by Dr. Jumpei Arakawa in 2012. Global Brain is the only investor and put in JPY 160 million (US$1.35 million).

IzumoBase specializes in software-defined storage (SDS) that Arakawa developed over eight years of research and development. For those of us more familiar with consumer-facing technologies, this Webopedia definition is helpful. It describes SDS as “storage infrastructure that is managed and automated by intelligent software as opposed to by the storage hardware itself. In this way, the pooled storage infrastructure resources in a software-defined storage (SDS) environment can be automatically and efficiently allocated to match the application needs of an enterprise.”

Dr. Arakawa, recognized as a “genius” by the Information Technology Promotion Agency of Japan, spent eight years developing the software. The result is a versatile, efficient service. With IzumoBase, Global Brain Principal So Sasakai claims, a typical file server configuration can be reduced to just one-fifth the typical price.

Global Brain appears to be bullish on the changing storage infrastructure landscape. Sasaki cited RedHat’s recent acquistion of Ceph for US$175 million as an example of the growing demand for the technologies IzumoBase provides.

Going forward, the startup will use the cash to release the sixth version of its product and expand globally. Already Unisys is a partner, providing support and maintenance to IzumoBase clients.

“In the storage world, there is this tectonic shift away from dedicated servers to general ones. IzumoBase is one of the top companies in the world making that possible. As long as performance and stability outperform competitors, there is a good chance to dominate the market world wide,” Sasaki tells Tech in Asia.

See: Japanese big data startup could be worth $200M – here’s why the founder won’t sell