IOMETE is a modern and open data lakehouse with a wide range of deployment options. IOMETE can run:
- On any major cloud, i.e. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud.
- On premise, i.e. leveraging your own private data center.
- On your private cloud, i.e. a cloud computing environment that is dedicated to a single organization.
- Hybrid, i.e. a combination of cloud and on-premise deployments.
This wide range of deployment possibilities makes IOMETE extremely versatile from a product perspective. For large enterprises there are real benefits of having a data lakehouse platform that is agnostic as to where your data lives.
But…there are big risks hiding under that versatility.
If you try to be everything to everyone, you will end up being nothing to no one.
That’s why we position ourselves as the on premise data lakehouse.
In this post I will discuss the reasoning behind focusing on on premise deployments and - as a result - explicitly ignoring cloud in our positioning statements and go-to-market.
Fight there where you can win
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." - Sun Tzu
Companies like Snowflake and Databricks built magnificent brands and sales organizations. Even though we know IOMETE combines the strengths of Snowflake and Databricks - is better, faster and easier to use at less than half the cost - we realize it is hard to fight a perception that has been carefully crafted over the past decade on the back of billions of VC funding.
The on premise market is served by companies like Cloudera and Oracle that have archaic architecture compared to IOMETE.
On premise is here to stay
Here are some of the reasons why the non-cloud market is still significant:
- Some organizations have regulatory or compliance requirements that prevent them from moving to the cloud. Many organizations outside of the US are hesitant to store their data on a US cloud and some are even prohibited to do so by their government.
- Data ownership. Many organizations prefer to truly own their data and keep it within their own trust perimeter.
- Data security. For certain use cases in government, healthcare, financial institutions keeping the data on premise is the most secure solution.
- Cost. Despite all its promises cloud computing is not always cheaper than on premise. Especially large enterprises can save millions by moving some of their data on premise.
It’s hard to get exact numbers on the on premise market. It is clear that cloud is bigger and growing at a faster pace, but by most estimates the IT on premise market is > $50Bn. In our book that’s big enough to build a sizeable organization.
It makes sense
If we get asked “what do you do?” the shortest way to answer would be “We are Snowflake for on premise”. If we swim in the same lane as Snowflake and Databricks, we would have to answer “We are like Snowflake or Databricks but better for reasons A, B and C”. Even though it might be true, it’s just a hard sell because you get pushed in defensive mode and you are fighting against the billions of marketing spend Snowflake and Databricks used to bend perception in their favor.
So will IOMETE not serve any cloud customers?
Yes, we do and will continue to do so, but we will not lead with it in our go-to-market motion. We will present ourselves as the on premise lakehouse experts because - frankly - we are.