Nimble Storage

Market position

Positioned in the all-flash and hybrid flash array market as a lower-cost midrange alternative to EMC and NetApp; within HPE it addresses entry and midrange price points complementary to the higher-end, highly scalable 3PAR StoreServ platform. Nimble ranked sixth on Deloitte's 2015 list of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Prior to the acquisition it was reported as a potential target of Cisco Systems, EMC, HPE and NetApp, and pitted HPE against six other interested firms.

Nimble combines CASL-based NimbleOS data services with InfoSight predictive analytics and machine-learning-driven support at entry to midrange price points, offering all-flash, hybrid-flash and multicloud options with an emphasis on ease of deployment; HPE cited InfoSight and engineering and cultural similarity as key reasons for the purchase.

Technology

NimbleOS with patented file-system architecture and cache accelerated sequential layout (CASL) underpins the arrays, providing dynamic flash-based read caching, write-optimized data layout, inline compression, deduplication, snapshots, replication, zero-copy clones and integrated data protection. InfoSight applies predictive analytics to storage management and support, and Unified Flash Fabric unifies All Flash and Adaptive Flash arrays under common data services. Nimble Cloud Volumes, in beta in early 2017, was a flash fabric designed to move data between Nimble arrays and Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Developer-facing tooling includes array REST APIs and open-source plugins and SDKs for Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker, Ansible, Puppet, PowerShell, Python, Go, Prometheus and OpenStack.

Go-to-market

Direct and partner-led enterprise sales, supported by joint reference architectures with Cisco (SmartStack), an OEM-style partnership with Lenovo for the ThinkAgile CX Series, and technical enablement through developer documentation, open-source integrations and hands-on workshops; proceeds from the 2011 Series D were earmarked for international sales expansion.

Entry-level to midrange data center customers, including SMB through large enterprise buyers, needing flash-optimized data services, hybrid-flash and multicloud support; workloads cited include desktop and server virtualization, cloud computing, business-critical applications, Oracle databases and SAP HANA. The company claimed 10,000 customers as of early 2017.

Geography

Headquartered in San Jose, California, with a campus there, and part of Hewlett Packard Enterprise; the company expanded sales internationally following its 2011 funding round.

History

Founded in January 2008 and headquartered in San Jose, California, Nimble announced its first product, the CS200 series hybrid arrays, at Tech Field Day in July 2010, launching mainly as a lower-cost alternative to EMC and NetApp in the midrange. It raised a $25 million Series D in July 2011 and $40.7 million in September 2012, filed for an IPO in October 2013 and began trading on 2013-12-13 under the ticker NMBL, raising $168 million at an opening share price of $31.49 that valued it above $2.2 billion. Product expansion followed with the CS700 Series and All-Flash Shelf plus Adaptive Flash technology in June 2014, Fibre Channel arrays in November 2014, Adaptive Flash platform updates (SmartSecure encryption, all-flash service levels, REST APIs, InfoSight-VMVision per-VM monitoring, integrated data protection) in July 2015, FIPS 140-2 certification in August 2015, the Predictive All Flash Array series in February 2016, the AF-1000 and refreshed CS-Series in August 2016, and a Lenovo partnership producing the ThinkAgile CX Series in October 2016. After its shares fell sharply following the November 2013 quarterly report and traded as low as $5.73 by February 2016, the company began a search for a buyer in 2016; HPE announced the acquisition on 2017-03-07 and closed it on 2017-04-05.

Risks & controversies

Nimble's stock fell 51% in one day after third fiscal quarter results missed expectations in November 2013 and traded as low as $5.73 by February 2016; losses widened to $158 million for the year reported in early 2017. CEO Suresh Vasudevan cited a challenge of scale and significant exposure as a standalone storage company as a reason for pursuing a sale. HPE's own storage revenue had been declining, falling 12% year over year to $730 million in the quarter before the deal.