Storage vendor Pillar Data, backed by Oracle’s Larry Ellison, has announced ambitious plans

Much-discussed storage startup Pillar Data plans to introduce new features including the ability to power down idle drives in forthcoming revisions of its Axiom product lines.

Pillar emerged from a research and development cycle last year and has gained attention for the size and source of its funding – over $200m from Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison – as well as a unique technological approach that includes combining NAS and SAN approaches in one box, and using commodity Sata disks to store nearline data on the outer tracks and archive data on the inner tracks.

Pillar said that since launching in Europe late in 2005, the firm has been growing fast. Global sales were up 63 percent in the traditionally sluggish first financial quarter of the year.

Now the firm is planning to reduce the power requirements of its storage systems in a release due early in 2007.

Brenda Zawatski, sales and marketing senior vice-president, said Pillar would use a technology that it calls “sleepy drives” to cut power needs. More automated data movement is also promised.

Before that, Pillar plans second-generation products for this summer with enhancements including faster connectivity and features that can help firms meet regulatory requirements, Zawatski said.

Oracle’s Ellison has said that he “wants Pillar to be the fastest ever company to gain entry to the Fortune 500”.

Zawatski said that an initial public offering is possible for as early as next year. “It’s obviously not going to be 2006 but it could perhaps be late 2007 or early 2008,” she added.