Archivas

About Archivas

Archivas Inc. operated in the digital archiving and content management market, providing specialized software solutions before its acquisition. The company was founded in May 2003 by Andres Rodriguez, who took on the role of CEO. Rodriguez's professional background as the Chief Technology Officer for the New York Times directly inspired the company's creation; he faced the immense challenge of digitally archiving over 150 years of the newspaper's back issues and found the existing tools inadequate. This first-hand experience with the complexities of managing massive, fixed-content repositories shaped the company's direction.

The firm was established to address the need for a single, centralized repository for fixed content that could be shared across multiple applications. Archivas developed a core product known as Archivas Cluster (ArC), an object-based file system specifically designed to store unchanging data such as medical images, scientific data, voice recordings, and satellite images. This software ran on industry-standard servers and was aimed at enterprise clients, particularly in sectors like pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and healthcare, which required immediate and reliable access to archived data. The business model centered on selling this hardware-independent software, which was positioned to compete with offerings from major players like EMC's Centera by providing a more cost-effective solution.

The company's journey included significant financial milestones, securing a total of $28 million in venture capital over several funding rounds from investors including Polaris Venture Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Solstice Capital. A key development in its history was establishing an OEM partnership with Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), which integrated Archivas' software into its Hitachi Content Archiver product. This partnership culminated in HDS announcing its acquisition of Archivas in February 2007 for an estimated $120 million. Following the acquisition, the Archivas technology became a foundational component of the Hitachi Content Platform, reinforcing HDS's strategy to expand its capabilities in content management and compete more effectively in the data archiving market.