Worcester Business Journal

12 Worcester Business Journal • February 16, 2014 www.wbjournal.com FOCUS An analytical path to market leadership Doron Kempel analyzed the IT landscape, then found a niche that led to the creation and rapid growth of his company, SimpliVity 1995 William Hanley, Galileo Electro-Optics, Sturbridge 1996 Nancy Dworman, Ralphco Inc., Worcester 1997 Kenneth Berger, Eastern Acoustic Works, Whitinsville 1998 Ralph Crowley, Polar Beverages, Worcester 1999 Paul Kennedy, Kennedy Die Castings, Worcester 2000 Michael Ruettgers, EMC Corp., Hopkinton 2001 Gordon Lankton, Nypro Inc., Clinton 2002 Ediberto Santiago, Santiago's Pizza, Worcester 2003 LARGE BUSINESS William Aubuchon III, W.E. Aubuchon, Westminster SMALL BUSINESS Bruce Carlin, Carlin Charron & Rosen, Worcester NONPROFIT David Jordan, Seven Hills Foundation, Worcester 2004 LARGE BUSINESS Ronald Feinstein, Lifeline Systems Inc., Framingham HISTORY: Previous Honorees 2 015 BUSINESS LEADERS O F T H E Y E A R LARGE BUSINESS Doron Kempel, CEO, SimpliVity Inc. Westborough T alking business with Doron Kempel is an ex¬ercise in for- mulas. Whether it's a matter of choosing his next venture, or optimizing the way his company, SimpliVity, is run, Kempel is all about evaluating paths toward optimal out- comes. "Everything is a plan. It is analysis, plan and intuition. It is that mix," said the for- mer major in the Israeli armed forces. A thorough evaluation of the informa- tion technology field led the CEO of the Westborough-based technology compa- ny to create his latest venture, which has received continued financial backing from multiple investment firms and a buzz among those in the field. SimpliVity's niche is what is called converged infra- structure, which combined different information technology components — such as data servers, software and net- working equipment — into one opti- mized package. SimpliVity, a private company, said it grew sales and its customer base nearly 500 percent in 2014 over 2013. (The com- pany came out of "stealth mode" in 2012 after its founding in 2009.) The company also expanded its global footprint, with a presence in Asia, resellers in almost 50 countries and employees in 18. The num- ber of employees climbed to more than 400 worldwide, a 270-percent year-over- year growth. Last month, technology ana- lyst firm IDC of Framingham named SimpliVity a global leader among vendors in its industry. All of that came from careful planning and preparation. For Kempel, even long- term goals and decisions come down to near-term steps and goals with measur- able results. "All of that is very simple, but of course it requires a great deal of discipline — self-discipline and organizational disci- pline," Kempel said. Kempel's latest venture (he sold his last company, Diligent Technologies, to IBM in 2008) takes all the features that have been pulled out of the computer main- frame, from storage to security, and returns it to one package called the OmniCube. It was one of the first prod- ucts to offer this "hyper-convergence" of all parts of a company's information tech- nology infrastructure. "We are offering a product (compa- nies) can run everything on. We have 15 cities in the U.S. that run everything on our system," Kempel said. The Worcester County Sheriff 's Office has been running its systems on three OmniCubes since 2013. This has simpli- fied operations — down from 12 servers — and cut costs while making everything easier to manage, Maurice Myrie, IT director at the sheriff 's office, said. "The Omnicubes have allowed me to focus my efforts on improving the sher- iff 's office technology in other ways," he said. Within the last year, SimpliVity shipped 1,500 OmniCube licenses. The company has also found the support of a number of backers; in November 2013, for instance, it raised $58 million in Series C funding. Investors have cited the company's lead- ership in the hyper-convergence category >> Continued on Page 17 BY SAM BONACCI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer P H O T O / M A T T V O L P I N I

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