Pivot3 reports bumper growth – but is it just hyperconverged hype?

Hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) supplier Pivot3 saw better than 50 per cent sequential growth in its bookings from the second to third 2017 quarters. It said it had a record number of million-dollar orders in both the video surveillance and data centre areas.

Any business experiencing 50 per cent-plus bookings growth from one quarter to the next must be doing something right. But "a rising tide lifts all boats" – how do you tell if they actually stand out from their peers?

Pivot3 recorded increased bookings supporting multiple mixed-application workloads by nearly 180 per cent in the third quarter. The majority of sales came from new customers. Nearly a third involved its Acuity platform that launched in April and features a NVMe flash tier and policy-based management for many mixed-application workloads.

It's an all-channel company and says it had a 178-percent increase in new deal registrations in the first nine months of the year, with 77 new partners joining in the third quarter.

The company talks of explosive growth. It could be enjoying the same level as Nutanix, Dell EMC with its VxRail product set, Cisco with SpringPath, HPE with its acquired SimpliVity HCI products, Scale, and NetApp with its SolidFire-powered HCI product. Which would mean the whole market is exploding, or Pivot3 stands alone, riding its personal express growth elevator, leaving others behind.

It raised $54.6m in seventh-round funding in 2016, a total of almost $250m, so it has a lot to prove. These growth numbers will certainly be keeping its backers happy. Pivot3 will be looking to post a great final quarter to keep the momentum going. ®