Intransa in Trouble

After pouring in more than $100 million trying to become the standard appliance for VMS software, multiple sources indicate that Intransa is in trouble and may be going out of business unless a buyer is found fast.

UPDATE: Entire Intransa Staff Laid Off

UPDATE: Intransa Wind Down Investigated

Over the last decade, Intransa went through many iterations trying to find the right model. Starting first as a general purpose SAN, the company transitioned about 5 years ago to target SANs for the surveillance market. Finding that too small for its ambitions and massive fund raising, the company broadened its approach to becoming the server platform for dozens of VMS software offerings. Today, the company lists more than a dozen VMSes that can be pre-loaded on to Intransa's appliances.

The problem was a weak value proposition especially against lower cost COTS hardware offerings (like Dell) and a rise in VMS manufacturers releasing their own hardware appliances. While Intransa claimed a 'secret sauce' against COTS hardware, they were never able to prove it. Plus, choosing a VMS manufacturer's own appliance simplified the buying and support process further.

Because of this, Intransa never really developed a defensible position in the market. Of course, they are not alone as Pivot3 has had their problems too (defocusing and refocusing over the last year). The net result shows that succeeeding at surveillance specific storage is a hard business.

While multiple calls and emails to Intransa have not yet been returned, various Intransa partners confirmed that Intransa sales people have been put on a two week furlough due to a lack of a cash and that the company will have to shut down if an investment and/or acquirer is not found quickly.

We recommend extreme caution with purchasing Intransa products as, even if they pull through now, their overall position is so weak in the market, it is unlikely that they will be around in the long term to support those products.

Note: In September 2011, we called out Intransa's risks in our analysis of surveillance startups.