WhipTail

About WhipTail

WhipTail, founded in 2009 by Edward T. Rebholz and James Candelaria, carved a niche in the data storage industry by pioneering the use of NAND flash memory as a high-performance alternative to traditional hard disk drives. Headquartered in Whippany, New Jersey, the company's name was inspired by the fast whiptail racerunner lizard, reflecting its focus on speed and efficiency in data processing.

The company specialized in building enterprise-grade solid-state storage arrays designed to eliminate performance bottlenecks in data centers. Its product line, including the ACCELA and INVICTA arrays, targeted businesses with mission-critical database, virtualization, and online environments that required rapid data access. These all-flash systems offered substantial improvements in processing times, addressing the growing performance demands of applications dealing with Big Data, high-performance computing, and virtualized workloads. WhipTail's business model revolved around selling these hardware solutions, which utilized its proprietary Racerunner operating system to manage the NAND flash components and deliver enhanced performance and reliability. The firm established key partnerships with major technology players like Cisco, VMware, and SanDisk to ensure compatibility and integration within existing IT ecosystems.

The founding team's vision attracted significant venture capital. After initial investments, WhipTail secured a Series B round of over $10 million in January 2012 and a larger $31 million Series C round in December 2012, with investors including Ignition Partners, RRE Ventures, and SanDisk Ventures. In 2011, the company appointed Dan Crain, former CTO of Brocade Communications Systems, as its CEO to steer its growth. Crain's background in storage virtualization and investment banking was instrumental in positioning WhipTail for its next phase.

This growth trajectory culminated in a major strategic acquisition. On September 10, 2013, Cisco announced its intent to acquire WhipTail for approximately $415 million. The acquisition, completed on October 29, 2013, was a key move for Cisco to bolster its Unified Computing System (UCS) strategy by integrating WhipTail's scalable solid-state memory directly into its fabric computing architecture. The integration aimed to enhance application performance and simplify data center infrastructure for clients. Following the acquisition, WhipTail's operations and employees were absorbed into Cisco's Computing Systems Product Group. However, on July 24, 2015, Cisco announced the end-of-life for the Whiptail product lines, signaling the final chapter of the standalone brand.