Locust Storage Wins Two GreenBeat 2009 Innovation Competition Awards; Company Recognized for Reducing Power in Data Center by 90 Percent
First Generation of Cleantech Storage for the Enterprise Sweeps Judge’s and Attendee’s Choice as Best Smart Grid Innovator in VentureBeat’s Innovation Competition at GreenBeat 2009
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San Mateo, Calif. – November 19, 2009 – Locust Storage, provider of the first generation of cleantech storage for the enterprise, today announced that is has been selected as the winner of the first Innovation Competition at GreenBeat 2009, the seminal conference on the Smart Grid. With its Smart Power Down enterprise storage system, which delivers high-performance and high-capacity storage with a 90 percent reduction in power compared to today’s legacy storage providers, Locust Storage was selected as the company most likely to make the next generation of the smart grid a reality by both a panel of expert judges and GreenBeat 2009 attendees.
“The field for the GreenBeat 2009 Innovation Award was extremely competitive, with many compelling new technologies aimed at making the Smart Grid a reality from a consumer, commercial, utility and data center standpoint,” said Rich Wong, a Partner with Accel Partners and an Innovation Competition judge. “Locust Storage stood out for its potential value proposition of reducing storage consumption by 90 percent in energy-hungry data centers.”
A few weeks ago, President Obama announced more than $3 billion in stimulus grants to improve and “smarten” the national grid—pushing the concept of a modernized electricity network into the limelight. At the same time, the Innovation Competition invited organizations with products that promised to wield significant impact on the power grid’s ability to become smarter to pitch their ideas in front of a world class group of industry influencers at GreenBeat 2009. Locust Storage was selected from more than 50 applications as the company most likely to shape the future of the grid.
“Locust’s patent-pending technology and unique innovations are keys to providing a clear market disruption with very substantial, very quantifiable customer benefits,” said Locust Storage CEO and Founder Seth Georgion. “Locust systems will initially appeal to emerging secondary storage uses such as digital media, retention, and tape-replacement, where scalable capacity can be paired with high performance and ease-of-management to dramatically reduce costs.”
The GreenBeat 2009 Innovation Competition winners were selected by a panel of expert judges, including Accel Partners’ Rich Wong, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Tim Carey, KPMG’s Craig Lobdell and Spring Ventures founder Sunil Paul. The Innovation Competition itself was hosted by Mayfield Fund and moderated by the firm’s managing director Navin Chaddha. Locust Storage also won in a survey of GreenBeat 2009 attendees, consisting of technology executives, venture capitalists, investment bankers, policymakers, utility executives and other Smart Grid stakeholders.
“Reflective of the growing public awareness for the smart grid, VentureBeat was impressed by the competitiveness of this year’s contest,” said Matt Marshall, founder and CEO of VentureBeat. “With Locust Storage leading the way, we are confident that the technologies represented by these companies will drive the way to an efficient, carbon-reduced super grid with enormous potential to increase reliability of power delivery and reduce our carbon footprint worldwide.”
GreenBeat 2009 took place November 18-19, 2009, in San Mateo, California. More information on the GreenBeat 2009 Innovation Competition, along with this year’s finalists, is available at http://events.venturebeat.com/greenbeat2009/innovation-competition/.
About GreenBeat 2009
The seminal conference on the Smart Grid, GreenBeat 2009 will bring together leading entrepreneurs, investors, utilities, technology executives and policymakers to accelerate the development of a leaner,
more efficient electrical grid. With a laser focus on new technology offerings, GreenBeat 2009 is the must-attend event in the space for discussion, debate and power networking. For more information about this event, hosted by VentureBeat, please visit http://events.venturebeat.com/greenbeat2009/.
About Locust Storage
Locust Storage is developing a new category of enterprise-class networked storage that offers fundamental breakthroughs in terms of price/performance, capacity, and system intelligence. These advancements, based on a unique architecture that leverages industry-standard technology, dramatically reduce the CapEx and OpEx required in large-scale enterprise storage deployments. Locust’s patent-pending technology and unique innovations are keys to providing a clear market disruption with very substantial, very quantifiable customer benefits.
VentureBeat, founded in 2006 to cover news and perspective about innovation for forward-thinking executives, has emerged to become one of the “best blogs on the Web.” according to the New York Times. It was recently called the most “influential business blog” by Text100, a public relations company that surveyed citations by mainstream news publications. VentureBeat runs several conferences, including GamesBeat, MobileBeat and GreenBeat. It also produces www.DEMO.com, the leading conference for emerging technology product launches.
