Cleversafe Inc.

Cleversafe Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Computer storage software and systems
Founded	2004 (2004)
Founder	Chris Gladwin
Defunct	2015 (2015)
Fate	Acquired by IBM
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois , United States
Key people	John Morris (CEO)
Products	Object storage software and systems (Dispersed Storage Network, SecureSlice, PerfectBits)
Number of employees	125–210 (2014–2015)
Parent	IBM (from 2015)

Cleversafe Inc. was a developer of object storage software and systems, established in 2004 by American entrepreneur Chris Gladwin. The firm concentrated on distributed data storage solutions and expanded its workforce to between 125 and 210 employees by 2014–2015. In 2015, IBM acquired Cleversafe, incorporating its innovations into IBM Cloud Object Storage as part of IBM’s hybrid cloud offerings.

History

Founded in 2004 by American inventor and entrepreneur Chris Gladwin, Cleversafe was created to advance enterprise data storage capabilities, leveraging Gladwin’s background with MusicNow, Inc., a company that handled digital music storage. Based in Chicago, Illinois, Cleversafe initially operated within the incubator at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

The company specialized in dispersed storage technology tailored for unstructured data at the petabyte scale, marketed under the name "Dispersed Storage Network" or dsNet. Their technique involved fragmenting data into multiple parts and spreading these fragments across various locations to improve both security and fault tolerance. Early financial backing was provided by OCA Ventures.

In 2013, John Morris assumed the role of president and CEO, guiding Cleversafe to a valuation of $1.4 billion prior to its acquisition by IBM in 2015.

Awards

Cleversafe received the Chicago Innovation Awards in 2008 for excellence in "Data Backup and Security." In 2011, it gained investment from In-Q-Tel, a venture capital firm associated with the US intelligence community. Forbes noted that by 2013, Cleversafe ranked as the second-largest cloud storage provider by volume, having secured over $100 million in funding from investors such as NEA, OCA Ventures, Presideo, Motorola Solutions, BVC, and Alsop Louis Partners. In 2015, CEO John Morris earned the Illinois Technology Association’s CEO of the Year title at the CityLights Awards.

Technology application

Cleversafe commercialized a data storage solution based on information dispersal algorithms that virtualize data by dividing it across multiple servers (N), requiring only a subset (M) to reconstruct the original information. This design enabled configurable fault tolerance (M-N) while sustaining full availability with minimal overhead (1 – M/N), thus offering greater reliability compared to conventional replication methods. Unlike hierarchical file systems, Cleversafe’s object storage utilized RESTful protocols to handle extensive volumes of data within a flat namespace using unique object identifiers.

The company introduced SecureSlice technology, which virtualizes and encrypts unstructured data by splitting it into indecipherable slices stored across separate nodes, embedding encryption keys within the data itself for intrinsic security. Furthermore, Cleversafe developed PerfectBits technology to guarantee bit-perfect accuracy when reading large digital objects, effectively addressing hardware-related bit error rate issues.

Patents

Cleversafe amassed a significant portfolio of patents related to large object storage systems. It was featured on IEEE Spectrum’s Patent Power index in 2013. By the time IBM acquired the company, Cleversafe held 318 patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Jason Resch was recognized as the company’s leading inventor with 139 issued US patents and 315 patent applications as of 2015.

Acquisition by IBM

In November 2015, Cleversafe, led by CEO John Morris, was purchased by IBM for $1.4 billion, subsequently becoming an integral component of IBM Cloud Object Storage. This acquisition filled a critical technology gap within IBM’s cloud storage offerings by incorporating Cleversafe’s innovative dispersed object storage system, which secures unstructured data through encryption, stores the encryption key alongside the data, and distributes the information across various storage nodes. This strategic move enhanced IBM’s cloud capabilities by integrating sophisticated object storage and erasure coding methods. The deal generated a tenfold return on investment for Cleversafe’s venture capital backers. Industry analysts recognized this transaction as a notable and uncommon milestone for technology firms based in Chicago.