If you’re in business, you’ve probably had trouble with online storage, file managing, or smart data sharing - and millions of others experienced the same problem too.

In today’s tech-driven world, everything seems to revolve around data - filing it, transforming it, logging it - you name it, but it didn’t just pop out of nowhere: curating large amounts of data had been a process decades in the making. With the rise of virtual businesses, however, the need for sophisticating the way we handle online data turned almost crucial.

At the other end of facilitating the process of proper data storing is Qumulo - a platform that does the due diligence on your behalf!

Sitting at the intersection of smart cloud computing and digital data management, Peter Godman’s platform turned all-around file data into insights that create value!

Wondering how a single online data platform keeps your data files safe, secure, and properly stored?

Read more about Qumulo’s rise to the tech throne here:

A Childhood Passion

Peter Godman, an introvert at heart a future entrepreneur-to-be, paved his path to success from a very young age. Born in Kansas, in 1972, the US-born spent his childhood diving deeper into computers and everything that went with it.

Fascinated by the idea of creating technological newness and exploring his options outside the lines, Peter was dedicated to unraveling the secrets of quality computing and ultimately, bringing something grand to the table.

At the age of three, Peter had become obsessed with jigsaws, and by the age of five, his interest in puzzles expanded to LEGOs. No matter what Peter had built throughout his LEGO phase, his mother was always there to provide him with a stream of positive, non-objective feedback.

When Peter turned seven, he and his friend, Eddie, began selling ice-creams out of the back of a caravan. While not a dream job for the seven-year-old, Peter adorned the idea of working with customers and meeting their needs.

By the age of nine, Peter had finally got his first-ever computer - and it was love at first type!

In the next two years, Peter would expand his basic computer knowledge onto creating video game writing, a childhood project that kept him and Eddie both busy and motivated. Although aiming to sell some of their video games and profit from it, the duo knew nothing about business and had no real customer base to work with.

While waiting for their first break in the virtual gaming world, Peter and Eddie shifted their focus on refining and polishing up their creations, thus turning them into worthy products gamers would line up to buy.

A Visionary’s Path

Until 1991, Peter attended Lawrence High School, after which he enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he failed to obtain a degree in mathematics and computer science.

Seeing no future in inefficient studying, Peter moved to Seattle in pursuit of better career options.

In the beginning, he switched between jobs until a serious role at a company called Isilon came along. The company, which worked as a data storage platform, enabled Peter to get firsthand experience in accelerating snail-slow data storage systems and turning them into functional and productive platforms.

By his early 30s, Peter was fixated on learning the ins and outs of building solid computer software. For him, programming was an outlet that allowed him to make the most of his potential.

However, Isilon soon became a company struggling to make ends meet.

Interestingly, this sudden twist of events gave Peter the push he needed to quit his position at the company and start fresh - this time, all on his own!

Having met an array of intellectuals at Isilon, Peter had found the perfect audience to present his glorious idea to. His co-workers, Aaron Passey, Neal Fachan, Sujal Patel, and Bill Richter, were happy to brainstorm strategies and pitch in with tech ideas of their own, thus guiding Peter onto a more promising business path.

Data Management, Simplified

In 2008, Peter and his friends launched a startup company called Corensic.

The platform aimed to solve a variety of tech issues, mainly through interchanging the process of deploying, certifying, testing, and developing software.

A century ago, banking represented a local affair dedicated to the preservation of assets. Today’s banking, however, revolves around the efficient worldwide deployment of capital and, on an international level.
In 2012, Peter and his team translated their entire knowledge into practice and alas - Qumulo was born!

The founders of Qumulo recognized that legacy scale-out- scale-up storage solutions were not designed to handle today’s data volume. After all, dated legacy systems couldn’t provide the visibility, control, and scale enterprises needed to manage massive unstructured data files anymore.

In an effort to save both the day and online businesses worldwide, Peter and friends considered Qumulo the ‘it platform’ to deliver radical simplicity at scale!

After an 18-month developing period, Qumulo launched its first product in 2013. By 2014, the company kicked off sales, while still keeping the purpose of its product under the radar.

It wasn’t until March 2015 when the software finally saw the light of day- and it was a data-aware systemizing revolution in every sense of the word.

As most tech solutions were not designed to bend to the new rules, managing massive growth of unstructured data across disparate environments became a complex task for the Qumulo team to manage.

Nowadays, however - after months of restructuring, improving, innovating, and software testing - liberating users and applications dependent on vast amounts of file data is what Qumulo does best!

The Company’s Breakthrough and Fundings

Headquartered in Seattle, Qumulo welcomed its first investment from Valhalla Partners, worth $2.3 million. In November 2012, the company secured an additional $24 million from a Series A round, led by Highland Capital Partners. By the end of its first year since launching, the company had raised a total of $26.8 million, while simultaneously introducing a line of new products on the market.

Six months after its first product release, Qumulo announced the completion of a $40 million funding series, courtesy of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers. In 2016, a new investor - Allen and Company - also took its chance on funding Qumulo and enriched the company with an additional $32.5 million.

Even so, the company’s share price had suddenly dropped by more than 35%, which immediately required a change of roles. Namely, in 2016, Qumulo hired Bill Richter as the company CEO and Peter’s successor. Under his ruling, Qumulo raised $30 million in 2017, followed by a remarkable $93 million in 2018, bringing the company’s total funding of $230 million. That same year, Peter, who had taken on the role of Qumulo’s CTO, left the company.

At the beginning of 2019, Qumulo opened offices in Vancouver, ultimately employing around 220 staffers.

Today, Qumulo is a breakthrough leader simplifying unstructured file data management for high-performance workloads - at an exabyte scale!

Figure-wise, the company manages 200+ billion files, 64 billion files in a single production cluster, and a 20+ petabyte management capability with a single full-time employee.

For three years in a row, Qumulo has been a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Distributed File Systems and Object Storage.

The platform is also a leader in the Hybrid Cloud File Storage Gartner Use Case.

They are proud of their customer relationships reflected in their consistent, 85+ Net Promoter Score (NPS). Qumulo’s customers include Fortune 500 companies, major film and animation studios, as well as some of the largest research institutions across the globe.

Long story short, Qumulo builds gigantic file data storage systems that project data around the world, and takes pride in its astonishing journey - from cloud nine to multi-cloud!