Coho Data

Coho Data was a data storage startup founded in 2011 by CEO Ramana Jonnala, CTO Andrew Warfield, and Chief Architect Keir Fraser. The founding team had a strong background in virtualization, having previously created the open-source Xen hypervisor at XenSource, which was acquired by Citrix in 2007. This experience heavily influenced their approach to storage, aiming to bring the benefits of virtualization, such as scalability and decoupling hardware from data, to the storage industry.

The company, initially known as Convergent.io, developed a product called DataStream, a scale-out hybrid storage solution designed for private cloud environments. The business model was centered on selling this solution, which combined commodity hardware with proprietary software to offer a pay-as-you-grow economic model inspired by public clouds. Its target clients were enterprises looking to build their own high-performance, on-premise cloud storage. Revenue was generated through the sale of these storage appliances, which started with a 2U appliance called the Datastream 1000. Later, Coho Data shifted to a software-defined model, packaging its DataStream software on hardware from partners like Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

Coho Data's product, the DataStream MicroArray, integrated software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined storage (SDS) on commodity hardware. The system combined Xeon-based servers, PCIe NVMe flash cards for performance, and traditional disk storage for capacity. A key feature was its ability to perform compute tasks closely coupled with storage, such as video transcoding and data analysis, though it was not a full hyper-converged appliance. The architecture was designed for linear performance scaling, utilizing an OpenFlow-enabled switch to manage the network and provide a single management interface. The company raised a total of approximately $65-76 million over several funding rounds, including a $30 million Series C in 2015, from investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Ignition Partners, March Capital Partners, Intel Capital, and Hewlett Packard Ventures.

Despite its technology and funding, Coho Data faced significant market challenges. The rise of hyper-converged systems and the increasing enterprise adoption of public cloud for storage made it difficult to differentiate its product. After rounds of layoffs in 2015 and 2016, the company ultimately failed to secure further operating capital and ceased operations in August 2017.

Keywords: Coho Data, data storage, scale-out storage, hybrid storage, software-defined storage, SDS, software-defined networking, SDN, private cloud, on-premise storage, Xen hypervisor, Ramana Jonnala, Andrew Warfield, Keir Fraser, DataStream, flash storage, NVMe, converged infrastructure, enterprise storage, storage virtualization, data center infrastructure, storage appliance, Andreessen Horowitz, storage startup, ceased operations