Follow the Leaders

Q&A with the executive management team:

Clark Masters, CEO and President
Fazil Osman, CTO and Founder
Keith Klarer, VP of Hardware Engineering and Founder
Mike Heumann, VP of Sales and Marketing
Simon Knee, VP of Software Engineering
Dan Krall, VP of Finance and CFO
Robert Harling, VP of Operations

1. Explain your journey to and why you joined Astute Networks?

Clark Masters, CEO: The most fun I ever had in my life was doing a startup. Although I was supposed to be retired (leaving Sun as Executive Vice President), the opportunity here was too enticing. Astute Networks was moving from a silicon-only storage product to a storage systems approach and my background was a perfect fit at the perfect time.

Fazil Osman, CTO: It’s clear to me that Ethernet is the future of all interconnects. Based on my experience at XLNT in developing the industry’s first commercial, single chip, switched Ethernet controller, I saw that this opportunity to take Ethernet technology to a new level was too good to miss.

Mike Heumann, VP Sales and Marketing: I’ve been fortunate to be part of a number innovative storage companies. Astute Networks has the same ingredients--great venture capitalists, great technology and a world-class executive team—that are the hallmarks organizations that achieve great success. I want to contribute to that success!

Robert Harling, VP of Operations: I have always been attracted to companies facing major change. My operational focus within technology and customer-driven companies is the ideal complement for the opportunities Astute Networks faces today and in the future.

Dan Krall, CFO: The opportunity to get in on the ground floor with a highly successful and respected management team was a prime motivator. But the chance to apply my years of experience in corporate business management and finance and play a critical role in the company’s success was key.

Keith Klarer, VP of Hardware Engineering: I started my career developing supercomputers, where performance was the number one priority. Then my career and focus shifted to making technology cost-effective. This experience of balancing performance and cost is a valuable skill set needed at Astute Networks as we maximize our cutting edge ASIC and software technology while maintaining price efficiency.

2. Three years from now how do you want the Astute Networks to be known?

Fazil Osman: “Astute Networks known as a customer-oriented company”.

Mike Heumann: “Astute Networks - a company who addresses customers’ real issues with real solutions.”

Clark Masters: “Great products, great people, great place to work.”

Dan Krall:  "As a technologically leading edge company who delivers solutions for our customers not for ourselves. "

Keith Klarer: “Astute Networks - provider of high-reliability, leading-edge, specialty storage products.”

Simon Knee: “High-quality software.”

Robert Harling: “Enabling the advancement of storage-intensive applications and delivering value for our customers.”

3. Why are partners and customers excited about the Caspian R1100 Edge Storage Blade?

Fazil Osman: For customers, the two big challenges for deploying new revenue-generating applications are ease and cost effectiveness. The integration of Astute Networks edge storage blades into the ATCA chassis makes it simple for customers to deploy storage as they deploy ATCA server blades while at the same time reducing costs.

Mike Heumann: Two reasons: First, our storage solution represents a very compelling set of values to your business. Second, the way Astute Networks does business. We work together, listen and bring value to the equation – we’re experts when it comes to developing storage solutions with our partners and for our customers.

Clark Masters: Three reasons:

1. For some applications, it is the only solution.
2. For others, it's the best solution.
3. For all, it's a compelling value proposition for customers.

Dan Krall:  Astute Networks has gone beyond the minimum to the next level of solving problems for our customers. We solve for the 2nd level problem; not just 1st level problem.

Keith Klarer: Because Astute Networks provides the best-in-class solutions for bladed storage.

Robert Harling: We deliver products and services that are uniquely positioned to provide superior performance, reliability, and customer service in a highly demanding market.

Simon Knee: It's the most efficient ATCA storage solution in terms of space and power.

4. What industry/technological trend(s) do you see making the biggest impact on the storage world over the next 5 years?

Fazil Osman: Communication networks no longer carry voice only. Today, many media-rich applications, such as IPTV, are being deployed. To meet the needs of these applications will require storage on the edge of these networks that is totally different from the traditional storage systems in the enterprise datacenter. Our high-performance, high-reliability Ethernet-based storage is the future for all interconnects.

Robert Harling: IPTV and VOD will drive the need for edge storage in HA environments. Astute Networks storage solutions for the ATCA platform will meet the needs of this exciting trend.

Mike Heumann: Storage is becoming aware and tailored to the applications. You can’t just throw disks in a box. You have to understand the customer’s problem space. The most successful companies are doing this. In the future, commodization without tailoring to the application will be a non-starter.

Clark Masters: Industrial revolution was all about mass standardization. The internet revolution is all about mass customization. We are at the tip of the iceberg on delivering the full promise of all of the foreseeable network devices. Cell phones, PC's, iPods, cameras, sensors, and devices are generating an explosion of data. This explosion will drive data to the edge of the network and the edge of the enterprise—where it can deliver more value, faster. Organizations that take advantage of this opportunity will enjoy business advantage. Astute Networks is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this trend.

Dan Krall: The impact of Solid State Drives (SSDs) is profound. Significant changes are occurring with cost, stability, power consumption and “greenness.” SSDs are just starting to be used in volume. Consolidation of virtualized servers will drive the virtualization of storage.

Keith Klarer: Storage management functions and SSDs will have the biggest impact on storage. Storage management, properly done, will greatly improve the utilization and ease of use of storage resources. SSDs will provide dramatic performance increases, provide a path to enhanced reliability and maintainability by allowing innovative approaches that are significantly different from traditional RAID.

5. As a leader, what is the number one challenge you face?

Fazil Osman: As CTO, my main focus is to understand the storage challenges that our customers are going to have in the next few years and make sure that our product roadmap matches their needs.

Clark Masters: Let me answer in two ways. First is execution. We have great people, great products, and a great opportunity. Our people-- direct employees, our contractors, our consultants, our suppliers and our partners--must execute as a tight, cohesive team. Also, starting small and growing large is a huge execution challenge. We must execute flawlessly as we grow.

Second, there are both advantages and challenges to being a small company. Being small we can react quickly, provide personalized service and have agility as an organization. Our great strength is our ability to innovate. The challenge is competing with large organizations with far greater resources. So we have to get our name and our brand to our customers and our customers' customers. With resource limitations, it's all about taking advantage of our strengths of being small, leveraging our partners and relationships to be big.

Dan Krall: Our number one priority is growing our customer base. Then manage the company growth effectively.

Mike Heumann: Our greatest priority is to continue to listen to customers, understand their challenges and pain points, and find effective ways to help solve them.

Keith Klarer: Incorporating the newest technologies into our products at points that properly match the market requirements for performance, value and reliability.

Simon Knee: Delivering on the product. Meeting deadlines.

6. What do you look for when hiring talent into Astute Networks and what is your management style?

Fazil Osman: It is always important to hire someone who is better than yourself.

Mike Heumann: I look for people who are self starters, who think outside of the box and add value to the team. Not cookie cutters with the same solution.

Clark Masters: Simply, hire the best and brightest. I look for people with hands-on experience, critical abilities and the highest ethical standards. You need to build a team with eye towards both short- and long-term success. Open communications, fairness, and the highest standards in business conduct are a must. I learned long ago what made me happy as an employee: the opportunity to have my views considered on issues that affected me and my organization. I never had an issue with a decision going against my recommendations as long as I had my day in court. I learn by debate. I want open communications and the tough issues surfaced via healthy discussions as a team.

Dan Krall: I look for demonstrated success and an honest assessment by the candidate of their skills and weaknesses. I look for a breadth of background that can be applied to a small company environment yet, with big company knowledge. If we only bring in small company experts, we will only be a small company. Vice versa is true.

Keith Klarer: Aside form the traditional skill sets required for the position, I look for breadth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and a strong motivation for learning and personal improvement.

Simon Knee: Good fit with the team. Someone who knows when to question.

 

• Quick Links
  

• Contact Us