Trilio Data

Market position

The company describes itself as a leader in cloud-native data protection for Kubernetes, KubeVirt, OpenStack and Red Hat Virtualization and is used worldwide by cloud infrastructure operators and developers. It was named to CIOReview's 20 Most Promising OpenStack Solutions Providers list in November 2015. Its addressable market was framed in 2016 around a cloud IT infrastructure market IDC estimated would reach $53 billion, including a private cloud segment worth more than $19 billion.

Trilio markets itself as purpose-built for cloud-native environments rather than adapted from traditional backup tools, emphasizing application-centric capture of both data and metadata, tenant-driven self-service, single-click restoration of entire workloads, policy-based incremental-forever architecture and background, automated recovery with predictable recovery times. In 2016 its CEO argued that traditional backup vendors had no comparable OpenStack offerings; the company's site cites a customer choosing Trilio over Kasten.

Technology

Trilio captures application-consistent, point-in-time copies of workloads including both data and metadata, using a policy-based incremental-forever architecture, and stores them on-premises or in the cloud. It integrates with Kubernetes storage through vendors' Container Storage Interface implementations, supports multi-tenant self-service operation (including provisioning and monitoring backups from the OpenStack Horizon dashboard), and offers a "Continuous Restore" capability aimed at near-zero data loss plus synchronous replication and automated failover in its OpenShift site recovery product.

Go-to-market

Trilio sells directly to enterprises and cloud service providers and works through channel and platform partnerships, including channel enablement support funded by its Series A and an alliance with Red Hat under which it reached Premier Partner status. Its software is offered alongside distributions such as Red Hat OpenShift and OpenStack Platform, Canonical, Mirantis, Nutanix, SUSE and the major managed Kubernetes services, and service providers such as PhoenixNAP resell data protection for Kubernetes resources to their own customers.

Cloud infrastructure operators, DevOps engineers, IT managers and developers, with customer concentration in telecom, defense, automotive and financial services. Named customers and references include Vericast, Telefonica UK, DETASAD, V3Main Technologies, PhoenixNAP and ASRC Federal Mission Solutions.

Geography

Headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, with customers served across the US, Europe and APAC.

History

Trilio Data was founded in 2013 by three technologists who had previously worked at EMC and had encountered emerging problems in the private cloud space; cofounder Sanjay Baronia started the company at the TechSandBox incubator in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, roughly three months before December 2013. David Safaii, a former Oppenheimer trader, enterprise software investment banker, Windspeed Ventures investor and BurstPoint Networks cofounder, joined as CEO in October 2014 after meeting a cofounder at an MIT forum panel. The company had 15 employees by early 2016 and raised a $5 million Series A led by .406 Ventures in October 2017. In December 2022, nine years after founding, Trilio announced a $17 million Series B, bringing total funding to $36 million, and appointed Massood Zarrabian CEO while Safaii became executive chairman.

Risks & controversies

Early-stage risks identified by the company's CEO in 2016 included an immature market opportunity and difficulty, as a startup, attracting enough skilled employees and customers.