RIP Active Storage - CLOSED

beskone · Could work for Apple Joined: 13 Apr 2009 Posts: 40

Alex Grossman and the CEO left in December and last Friday Active closed the doors for good, all employees were let go and they've locked the offices and warehouse up.

Still trying to determine what ongoing support options there are for existing customers / installs.

Too bad, they made decent stuff.

mark raudonis · Xsan Master Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 123

Sad to see this. I was an early adopter of the Active Storage line and loved their stuff. It was pricey, but here we are five years later and it's still spinning away.

We had a tech support issue a couple of weeks ago and they handled it well. Guess we snuck in under the wire.

I remember when we bought our first set of raids and we were installing it on the weekend. We were missing a part and called Active. Alex himself drove the part from the south bay to our offices in Van Nuys to get us up an running.

They had a great team. I hope everyone lands on their feet somewhere else.

undercover · Could work for Apple Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 59

Super sad, I was actually just inquiring about purchasing ActiveSAN. Guess mac minis really ARE the future.

savowood · JBOD Joined: 17 Sep 2010 Posts: 1

As one of the Active Support and Field Engineering team, I can tell you it was a surprise to all of us the way things developed. For those of you who know us, find us at NAB and we may be able to tell you the finer details by then.

Most of us are actually okay and employed elsewhere already. Details will be public fairly soon.

abstractrude · Xsan Master Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 881

Very disappointing. I always loved the Active Storage culture. Wonder if someone will buy the name/patents etc. Good luck to everyone that was at Active.

Bigger question, now that active is gone and I still don't like promise. What is the go to storage for integrators?

nmart · partially protected Joined: 14 Nov 2011 Posts: 5

This is really tragic - such awesome kit - brings back the same feelings I had when the Xserve was canned.

Lets spare a thought for the engineers who now are jobless - maybe if anyone knows of openings for guys they can post them here

matx · Xsan Master Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Posts: 379

Kadimac Corp · JBOD Joined: 22 Jan 2013 Posts: 1

This is a good time to contact your resellers or VARS and build a plan to move forward. Companies like mine and Tekserve will do their best to support our users and their environments. Active made fine equipment and I expect it will keep chugging along for a good long time, but it is a good idea to plan the next step for when the time comes. Hopefully we will hear more about the Active situation in regards to support and we all can make good choices as to what to do.

Ben Greisler
Kadimac Corp
ben@kadimac.com

Disclaimer: I am a reseller for Active (well, was), Promise and Nexsan.

handygeek · Knows DNS is the answer Joined: 23 Apr 2008 Posts: 37

This stinks. I always thought highly of this little crew. Sure would be nice if another storage provider would buy up their product line at the very least. I wonder if BlackMagic Designs is buying anymore small companies out. Could be a real opportunity for them.

carbon · JBOD Joined: 13 Nov 2010 Posts: 2

Subject says it all. What happens to active support contracts? How about parts?

abstractrude · Xsan Master Joined: 13 Mar 2008 Posts: 881

Thats a huge question. There a number of laws protecting consumers. I really don't see how Active's backers get out of this without some sort of compensation for customers. But I'm not a lawyer.

TuberMagPico · Knows DNS is the answer Joined: 08 Apr 2008 Posts: 30

Alex has have left the company he founded and I wish him all the best !

Active has great minds and people, and if you'll take a look at their linkedin profile the are with quantum now..

let's give it a day or two and wait for that press release.

a nickel

jtaylor5959 · JBOD Joined: 23 Jan 2013 Posts: 1

shawnbti · JBOD Joined: 24 Jan 2013 Posts: 2

Bright Tech has already been a approached by a few Active San users looking for support assistance. Bright is a technology company specializing in high-speed, low latency, SAN server appliances (MDCs). We have 60+ man years of experience with Stornext,, high-end storage devices, media applications, networking and workflow design. BTI also develops additional software layers to deliver high-speed, latency free, predictable performance critical to streaming media files.

Please give us a call if you need assistance.

www.4bright.com

aaron · Site Admin Joined: 19 Mar 2005 Posts: 407

Quantum has asked me to post an FAQ regarding the shutdown. Important points:

* Quantum has not acquired Active Storage, their products, or their technology.
* Quantum has already hired "a substantial portion of the Active Storage field team."
* "Quantum is not assuming responsibility/liability for supporting Active Storage’s customer base."

Please read the full letter on our front page.
_________________
Aaron Freimark
http://www.tekserve.com/vcard/af.vcf