back to article Coho Data leaps aboard layoffs train: Another startup cuts jobs

Coho Data, the storage startup with the clever storage array that can also compute, has joined the craze and laid off a load of unfortunate staff. We understand Coho Data held a staff reduction exercise in the second half of last year, and this has been followed by a second one at the start of this year. The storage startup …

  1. Platypus

    Storage has always been a hard place to make a living

    Especially for startups. It's one of the first places that enterprises look to cut costs, and one of the last places they're willing to experiment. And it has become a crowded space. The folks at Coho are great, but I could say the same about a dozen other startups of the same vintage. They can't all succeed. In a way, this is a side effect of lowering the barrier to entry. Now that scale-out software on top of commodity hardware (even if it has a fancy faceplate) is more competitive with specialized hardware, it seems like everybody and their brother has a storage startup with a new take on where the "real" storage problems are and how to solve them. Some of those ideas are truly new, and truly great. Some aren't. The problem is that it's hard to tell which is which, so when the lifeboat's too crowded and companies start getting thrown overboard it's not always the ones who should have been. Sadly, technical merit and business value don't usually count as much as cozy relationships with investors, analysts, journalists, and (just once in a while) "whale" customers.

  2. John 104


    So... Hire two vice presidents and lay off some staff. Somehow that will aid their engineering efforts? Sounds more like favors to me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Typical

      Oh yes indeed!! Loads of "strategic" favors going on there. Sad to see how the VC's funding is wasted on some "Strategic" hires!!!

  3. Bruce Hockin

    It all sounded sooooo good

    I'm a big fan of innovative storage start-ups and Coho appeared interesting. However, the only Coho solution I heard of deployed in the UK had major problems from the off. These weren't able to be resolved via support and has now been ripped out and replaced by Nutanix after just 12 months. Real shame.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow, it seems interesting to me that a company like Coho Data who usually flies under the radar is getting so much attention following a reduction in force. Comments like, I know of one customer who had problems and it was replaced by another vendor...? I have been in the storage business for over ten years and can say with great certainty that every storage vendor, every network vendor, every hardware vendor out there has had customer problems and have lost customers to other vendors. Name any vendor and I can assure you that they have happy customers and unhappy customers, and Coho Data is no different. Watch Coho Data this year because some really great announcements are on the horizon!

    1. Broooooose

      I have my ear to the ground on most things storage. Esp innovative start ups, it's my job. So when I only hear about only one UK install (and I've seen lots of Nimble, Tegile, Tintri, NexGen wins), and I'm obviously be happy to be corrected here - I'm sure there are more, please tell me there are more???!! - and it's gone hideously badly, you do have to wonder. Yes, evreyone has a bad day in the office, but it's usually a small majority of installs. Not the only install. Anyway, so when are all these big announcements then? Would be good to see something positive come out of their stable.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Spin, and not in the drives

    Their PR hack has done himself proud: Coho aren't laying off, they're "doubling down on areas where we can grow".

    The rest of you storage lot take notes for the next time you're planning redundancies.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is NOT INDIA!!!

    It is too bad that Technologies/Coho Data does not believe in fair pay and fair employment. The lead owner and his lackies want to run the company with an iron fist while under-paying everyone and only hiring their own kind. As an ex-employee, more people have left than have been laid-off. The peter principle is in full effect at Techologies/Coho Data. It is just another typical Silicon Valley Ghetto with the added twist of all the developers being in Canadia (BC). And, to think that this darling child of Andreesson-Horowitz pedigree cannot get to the Airbnb, Box, Twitter. Facebook, Lyft or Groupon level seems contrary to the magic this famous VC is capable of. Again, this is the USA. This is California. Try doing business like you are, at least, on the same friggin' continent!

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