Formation Data Systems

Formation Data Systems, Inc. was established in 2012 by a team of storage industry veterans, including Chairman and CEO Mark Lewis and co-founder Andy Jenks. Lewis brought extensive experience from leadership roles at EMC, Compaq, and Digital Equipment, aiming to address the complexities of enterprise storage. The company was founded to develop an enterprise storage platform that would provide hyper-scale, cloud-based computing capabilities, similar to those developed internally by companies like Google and Facebook.

The firm secured significant funding across several rounds, totaling over $24 million from investors such as Dell Technologies Capital, Mayfield Fund, Pelion Venture Partners, and Third Point Ventures. Its core product, the FormationOne Dynamic Storage Platform, was a software-defined storage (SDS) solution designed to run on commodity x86 hardware. This platform aimed to virtualize and manage storage resources regardless of the underlying hardware, supporting block, file, and object interfaces. Key features included continuous data protection, quality of service (QoS) for prioritizing application workloads, and the ability to reclaim unused storage capacity. The business model focused on providing enterprises with a more agile and cost-effective alternative to traditional storage arrays, enabling them to manage data across flash, disk, and cloud environments.

Despite a veteran leadership team and a product that won a silver award for server-based storage in 2016, the company faced challenges. It operated in a crowded and competitive software-defined storage market, struggling to differentiate itself and secure sufficient public customer references. The approach was perhaps too broad, attempting to be a generic, multi-protocol solution rather than focusing on specific use cases. In May 2017, Formation Data Systems ceased operations due to financial difficulties and the inability to secure further investment. The company was subsequently acquired by eBay in October 2017.

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