When I logged in into my blog today, a plugin called "broken-link-checker" notified me about a broken link. I wondered which link this might be, and checked it - which just increased my irritation and confusion, because it was the link to Wasabi Systems Inc. (http://www.wasabisystems.com). I checked it manually from several different hosts, and even tried to ping it - with no success. The servers really seem to be down, though the routes are still there, and the name-server still (at least at the time of this post) resolve the name into the corresponding IP-Address.
I asked around in the IRC, with the result, that I was not the only baffeld one finding the Wasabi System Inc. hosts down. According to unconfirmed rumors, Wasabi Systems Inc. is said to have closed down business some weeks ago. This is an unconfirmed rumor, and I though I have tried and searched the internet, there is absolutely no way in finding out anything reliable about the current state of Wasabi System Inc., except that their servers are shut down. When you look at the entries of the employees of Wasabi Systems Inc., which you can find on business-contact-platforms, their current employment status is "working at Wasabi System Inc. in Position <x>".
Because there is not even a page stating some kind of technical problem, and since a downtime like this would be really really expensive for a modern IT-Company, I don't believe in technical issues. On the other hand I find it really hard to believe that a promising company like Wasabi Systems Inc. should have shut down business, especially in such a mysterious, dead-silent way. Even an April's Fool's Day Joke can probably be dismissed, because while that would have been funny yesterday, today it is not. And besides that, as I said before, a Joke like this is bad publicity, and the unavailability would harm Wasabi System Inc. more than the joke would do good, because support is as unreachable as anything else.
Wasabi System Inc. was building and selling Network Storage Devices based on NetBSD and provided a journalling filesystem called wapbl, which they donated to the NetBSD community some time ago.
Here are my ping-stats:
mjoellnir@unknown:~$ ping wasabisystems.com PING wasabisystems.com (69.9.177.46): 56 data bytes ^C ----wasabisystems.com PING Statistics---- 9 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss mjoellnir@unknown:~$ ping support.wasabisystems.com PING support.wasabisystems.com (69.9.177.82): 56 data bytes ^C ----support.wasabisystems.com PING Statistics---- 32 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100.0% packet loss mjoellnir@unknown:~$
Update:
I tried to call them, but their phone-lines are permanently "busy", no matter what time of day. As it seems, the rumours about them having closed down business are getting more and more substantial. What I wonder is, why they seem to keep it such a mystery.
Tags: close down, NAS, netbsd, network, SAN, Storage, Wasabi Systems Inc.
Wasabi is undergoing a change in ownership and this is causing the temporary hiccups in phone service and websites. Not going away, just being redone with different ownership.
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mjoellnir reply on April 7th, 2009:
And this is such a myth that there’s no notification, no official statement, and even you prefer to remain anonymous? You have to admit that this is definitely a bit weird.
However, let’s wait and see what happens in the future.
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Well.. that explains why they haven’t provided me a status update on ticket I had open with them for several months now. Basically, I identified a specific problem somwhere between the 3ware TWA driver and the kernel that would cause total failure of the Wasabi SAN under moderately heavy load. The last message that I received from them on this ticket stated the following:
“Yes. We have specialized equipment running on a server in our lab. The information is being sent to AMCC. Making progress, but slowly. AMCC and our developers have been working through it. I will keep you updated.
Thanks,
Ian”
That came in Thu 3/12/2009 11:16 AM.
Wasabi was actually the best of the entry level SAN products, although the specific issue that we were running into was preventing us from relying on it heavily, and was the catalyst for making a decision to deploy Left Hand instead.
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Gregory Boehnlein reply on April 7th, 2009:
As a side note I spoke to a few old contacts at Wasabi, and while they do not have any concrete information, they suspect that the company may have run out of VC money.
I’ll wait to hear something official though, as no one has posted anything concrete and credible yet.
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As I heard from one of the top guys at Wasabi, they are shutdown. No reorg, just shutdown. It was sad, they were such a good company to work with.
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Burn rate too high, sales growth too low, margin under pressure from Dell & friends. A sad day for customers as I think they were really on to something. In other news, there are whispers at HP of a major “haircut” at LH Networks. The way things are going we will be back to 3-or-so vendors and high prices again. Maybe China can save us, Huawe should start doing servers and storage?
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Anyone have any more info on what’s going on at Wasabi?
I had an active support ticket with them and Ian was also helping me.
From what I can see, it seems he was the only person in the support department over there, and I’m curious as to if anyone has any more information.
Is it in fact a Re-Organization or have they left the building?
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Just got off the phone with the former Director of Support Services who worked at Wasabi until July of last year.
Wasabi was indeed a venture capital backed company, and went through a number of ’rounds’ of funding.
Recently my contact received a resume from a former employee of his asking about available openings at his current employer. This was a programmer who worked directly on the ip-san kernel.
Also the phone number 757-248-9601 now leads directly to Mr Frank Logan’s voicemail. Frank is / was the President / CEO of Wasabi.
All points I’ve researched show Wasabi to be shuttered.
Anyone have any other clues?
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The most frightening thing here is that there does not seem to be anywhere for people to go for Wasabi support?
Any idea where there is a community based forum other than at Wasabi Systems where now previous customers can collaborate to provide each other assistance?
Investing in a different IP SAN infrastructure is going to be very Scary for those SMB customers who thought Wasabi was the magic storage bullet…
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It seems they were taken to court (or subpoenad?) recently for patent violation, along with some other storage system vendors:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/04/05/New_Complaints.htm
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The shoe dropped on 3/13. I don’t know about senior management, but everyone else had zero notice. On 3/12, Ian E. had no idea. AFAIK all the physical stuff in the office was liquidated, so Wasabi’s really gone. I don’t know what happened to the IP; I think Frank L. was trying to find buyers for it.
Most of the survivors are on linkedin, and many are still looking for work. I’m sure at least some of us would be willing to take contract work.
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I believe that it is highly unethical to go out of business and just leave your customer base hanging. The least they could do is acknowledge that they are gone to the public. The most they could do is release their source code to the public so that their customers could at least continue to self-support the product. What about the people that purchased long-term support contracts from Wasabi for their VMX appliances? Luckily, I am not one of them, but if I were in their shoes I would be fuming pissed and talking to an attorney. At the prices that Wasabi was charging for their additional support contracts, they have a responsibility to their customers to either make good on the support contract, find an alternate vendor to support the product and/or refund the unused value of the contract. Hopefully, they will handle this in a responsible manner.
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Tonnerre reply on April 18th, 2009:
Salut,
You’re hereby invited to publish a book about ethical bankruptcy…
Tonnerre
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Wasabi Systems closed business at the end of March. All employees were given adequate notice. Don’t know about post product support, but would venture to guess that it is null set. Since there is nothing like it in VB, VA, former employees will most likely relocate to find decent employment, so much for the experiment.
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Miffed reply on April 20th, 2009:
If by “adequate notice” you mean “check in your code and go find a new job and insurance”, then you are correct.
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OB1 reply on April 25th, 2009:
W.R.T. adaquate notice…YES…after all it was a start up firm
located in Norfolk with most employees working remotely.
The risk was always there with only VC coin to keep it going. In
the last year the turnover was extremely high. Kudos for staying in business this long. The unfortunate part is that since there is
nothing like it in Hampton Roads, most will have to relocate to
find good challenging work that compensates. As far as not having
insurance, truly unfortunate. Good thing Wasabi “employed” a young
crew. So much for the experiment!
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Someone I know who had worked at Wasabi said that he thought the warranty for the appliances was still in place. The support number is 1-877-990-0146. That goes to the system assembler. He also told me that the VMX hardware were from Super Micro and were non-proprietary.
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Spoke to former prez last week when i heard and essentially the IP will come forward again from another firm. Very vague but that’s all i received in an short email thru Linked-In..
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Heh.. I just called that number and they answered as Wasabi Systems Support. So I gave them my ticket ID and asked for status. The guy that answered was unsure of how to handle it, and when I asked if Wasabi was still in business his answer was “Yes..”. I asked why they had not responded to my E-mail requests since 3/12 and he said he would get back to me. He did identify himself as Wasabi “Tier 1″ support, whatever that means. Should be interesting.
I also left a message for Frank Logan at the main Wasabi number, and requested a call back. I’m not expecting to hear back from anyone.
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JC reply on April 20th, 2009:
That number is just hardare support for the appliances.
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Looks like the Wasabi Systems website is partially back up.. it now shows “Wasabi Systems” when you connect to it, rather than timing out. I’ve been led to beleive that they are starting to gear up to ship product again. Anyone have any more detailed information?
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Just received this…
Hi,
My name is Frank Logan. I’m the former CEO of Wasabi Systems, Inc. and now the Chief Executive of Chesapeake Advisory Partners, LLC who has acquired Wasabi. I understand that you were working with Ian Evans and Rena Berardi on various issues when Wasabi suspended operations.
We are bringing the business back online under new ownership and I’d like to talk to you about potential opportunities with your company. We are looking for a few selected partners that have a strong vertical market focus where our storage can be an effective solution.
I’m traveling this week, but I’d like to schedule a call to see if there is a match. I’d also like to make sure that any unresolved issues are addressed.
Best regards,
Frank Logan
Chief Executive
Chesapeake Advisory Partners, LLC.
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Phil reply on July 11th, 2009:
Do a search on Chesapeake Advisory Partners, LLC. and see how far that gets you. Give it up, man.
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Impressive … only 3 months from closing the doors to providing any type of communication to its customers.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but I’d be leary of working with anyone that displays this type of customer non-support and complete disregard of commonly accepted ethical business practices.
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mjoellnir reply on June 17th, 2009:
Well, yes in fact it was exactly this lack of information / communication, which led me to writing this article.
If by “commonly accepted ethical business practices” you mean to keep your customers informed about the fact that you have to close down business, I totally agree.
Bankruptcy is never improving your image, but being honest to your customers minimizes the damage taken. Wasabi Systems Inc. has done itself no favor in keeping everything locked down and quiet, I think, and its successor will probably have to work real hard to regain trust.
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I agree with you.
Based on the posted letter from Mr. Logan, we can assume that the ownership structure has changed (i.e., VC’s bailed due to lack of confidence), but the management structure, at least at the CEO level, is unchanged. That does not impart much faith that things will change in a way that would merit an increase in trust.
What’s that definition of insane? Doing something the same way but expecting different results…
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mjoellnir reply on June 18th, 2009:
I always thought that this was the definition of “inapt”.
We’ll see what will happen. It won’t be helpful to anyone, if no one would give them (the successors of Wasabi Systems) a chance, so let’s not paint too black a picture here.
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OB1 reply on June 22nd, 2009:
Don’t drink the Jim Jones vino, this company is dead and any hopes reviving is futile. Former CEO is “punch drunk” if he thinks he can make this work in ‘Nofuck’, VA or worse running a biz from a rubber dingy in VB. All, ALL, the talent has left for greener pastures, back to civilization, Boston, SG the Gulch or the Valley. Based upon “LinkedIn” there are a few straglers drinking the Jim Jones wine still squating in Virginia with the hope that something will come of this, but after they exhaust the unemployment bennies, it will be off to civilization. So much for this experiment.
Inapt, I think a better word is inept, based upon the attempt of making this happen in Sole town, USA. The only thing going in Hampton, VA is drugs, stolen cars, and prostitution and a sprinkle of summer resort revenue which caters to the aforementioned.
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I have found reading this string of comments interesting. I am executive recruiter and I specialize in the storage industry and have done so for the past 6 years.
This industry is littered with companies who have either gone out of business (agami, Attune Systems, Crosswalk, Mendocino) or been purchased (Kashya, Zetta Systems, LH Networks, Equallogic) to name a few. These actions have left the customer base with basically some tough choices. Either get the source code and support it yourself (and hope you have the expertise to execute) or pay a price you did not expect after one of the tier one storage boys bought them-if it is still available.
Generally speaking, ethics and business usually don’t mix (I know, strange words from a recruiter but iI do have standards—and I can sleep at night). Or another way to put it, if you want loyalty, buy a dog.
Davis
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Zorian Rotenberg reply on July 1st, 2009:
It’s sad to see that Wasabi closed down.
But Wasabi customers know that there are alternatives and companies who can help them transition to another iSCSI SAN software that does what Wasabi products did.
In spirit of full disclosure, I run StarWind Software, and we have a product that converts any Windows Servers into an iSCSI SAN plus you can do Snapshots and Mirroring to another server as well as Remote Replication.
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“Davis” said:
“This industry is littered with companies who have either gone out of business … or been purchased (…, Equallogic) to name a few. These actions have left the customer base with basically some tough choices. Either get the source code and support it yourself (and hope you have the expertise to execute) or pay a price you did not expect after one of the tier one storage boys bought them-if it is still available.”
I don’t know what you were thinking when you wrote that, but it certainly does not in any way describe the situation that applies to EqualLogic. Please don’t write grossly misleading statements like that.
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wasabisystems.com is back up, sort of.
“Available soon. Call to inquire.”
http://www.wasabisystems.com/
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Scarver reply on July 27th, 2009:
Call who?
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All !
Wasabi is back in 2009 !
And Frank G. Logan is still the Chief Executive Officer and President of Wasabi Systems Inc.
Check is out , http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=425146.
cheers !
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