LeftHand remains survivor in data storage race

BOULDER ? If business ends up not working out for Bill Chambers and John Spiers, they may have a future in weather forecasting, or any other kind of forecasting, for that matter.

That?s because some believe they can see the future ? not a bad skill for entrepreneurs.

Whatever the two men?s strengths, they?ve proven they can start a company and make it fly. They?re the men who started what many describe as a wildly successful data storage company called LeftHand Networks in Boulder, which was incorporated officially in 2000.

?Some companies trumpet their technology?s competitive advantage. John himself is a competitive advantage because on any given day he can see where the commercial market for data storage technology will be in five years,? says Mark Weakley, an attorney with Holme Roberts & Owen in Boulder who has worked with the two men for the last six years.

?John got it, then sold co-founder Chambers on it, and the rest is history,? Weakley says. ?They?ve turned the business into a vibrant, state-of-the-art advanced storage technology company. LeftHand has made a huge splash nationally and internationally in their sector, and it?s the industry leader in a very hot market of Internet Protocol Storage Area Networks (IP SAN).?

Weakley says that in 2000, Spiers recognized that the data storage market would, through advancements in distributed computing and gigabit Ethernet, move beyond tape, disk and even Fibre Channel products.
?And he was right,? Weakley says.

?I?d like to say I have a crystal ball, but I?ve just been in the industry a long time and spent a lot of time networking with the technical community,? says John Spiers, co-founder of LeftHand Networks.
Weakley is equally sold on Chambers.

?Bill is a master of glue and vision. He knows how to build and manage a disparate team so that they move at high efficiency in the same direction,? Weakley says. ?And Bill saw the potential (in the marketplace) from day one when he met John Spiers.?

Since 1999 they?ve focused on helping midlevel companies appreciate the benefits of shared network storage. Its flagship software, SAN/iQ, lets clients move their data from local servers to a storage area network.
So what drives them? ?The desire to win,? Chambers says with a laugh. ?And we also have a passion for delivering solutions to customers.?

Spiers says he likes to see customers? excitement, especially when they compare LeftHand?s solutions to the competition. ?When I see what the competition is doing and how ridiculous their monolithic machines look, I just get more passionate about our work,? he says.

Before he started LeftHand Networks, Chambers led GE Fanuc Asia Pacific, a joint venture between General Electric Inc. and Fanuc Ltd. of Japan. He started his career with Texas Instruments in sales and sales management roles.

Today Chambers is the president and CEO and has spent 20-plus years in high-tech company management specializing in new product introductions and market creation and development.

Chambers has led LeftHand through two rounds of private investment funding, developed the storage industry?s first IP SAN solution and created successful partnerships with Fortune 100 and emerging-growth companies.
Spiers is LeftHand?s chief technology officer, and he, too, has more than 20 years of experience creating software hardware for the storage industry.

Before LeftHand, Spiers was director of engineering and oversaw new product development at Maxtor Corp., the hard disk drive storage company.

The story behind the company?s name? Three reasons: Chambers is left-handed, and the office is in Boulder Valley ? sort of like the left hand of Silicon Valley. The story goes that the two men met regularly at the Longmont pub called the Left Hand Brewing Co. to talk about starting a company.

Their work has earned the company numerous awards and plenty of praise from many industry analysts. Among them: the Front Range Innovation Award for Celebrate Technology, the IT Storage Online ACE award (finalist), the Windows&.NET Magazine Award for Best of TechEd 2004 (finalist), the 2005 Industry ACE Award for the storage industry from by Data Storage Connection, the 2005 Network Storage Conference Annual Award from Computer Technology Review and Peripheral Concepts Inc. and Windows & .NET Magazine?s Best of TechEd 2004 Award.

The two chalk up their success to teamwork and vision. ?From the time we first met, John and I had a good chemistry, and we?ve tried to keep that chemistry and teamwork strong as we?ve grown to 130 employees,? Chambers says.

And LeftHand has survived in an industry that just six years ago had 220 companies. Today, that number is down to just 12.

Are they afraid they?ll die out, too? ?We?re still paranoid entrepreneurs, and we still worry and we still watch every dollar and try to stay focused on our vision,? Chambers says. ?We have over 4,000 systems running, plenty of good customers so we?re bullish and we?ve got some pretty good traction.?

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