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Veeam CEO interviewed!



I was wondering about this little startup firm called Veeam. I invited the CEO for a little chat and was happy when he obliged. I am always attracted to startups for variety of reasons. Some of them being:
  • They are sharp and lightweight
  • They address the direct needs of the consumers
  • They dig into the market and discover gaps and holes (based on deep business needs of the constantly evolving consumer) which bigger firms fail to notice. I have spoken about this phenomenon (called "bounded awareness") on my vlog
Anyways lets take a look at these gentlemen's impressive biographies.

Ratmir Timashev


Ratmir Timashev presents a rare combination of business savvy and technical knowledge which helps him in his position as the president of Veeam Software, allowing him to create a vision for the company that is forward-looking, realistic, and meets the customer needs.
Timashev has more than a ten-year business experience. In 1993, he founded Midwestern Commerce, the predecessor of Aelita Software, where he worked as CEO. From the beginning he led the company to a consistent growth in profits. In 2004 Aelita Software was acquired by Quest Software, and Timashev took the position of General Manager of Microsoft Business Unit. In 2005 he left Quest Software, and in 2006 Ratmir founded a new company, - Veeam Software - which he headed as the president.
Timashev holds a master's degree in Physics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIT) and a master's degree in Chemical Physics at Ohio State University.

Dr. Andrei Baronov



Dr. Baronov, Veeam co-founder and its Chief Technology Officer (CTO), is one of the world's deepest Windows experts. Baronov oversees all the aspects of product development.
Having worked as CTO for Midwestern Commerce, he took the same position in Aelita Software. His expertise and insight have allowed Aelita Software to create a family of products whose architecture and core technologies were a generation ahead of competitors. After Aelita's acquisition by Quest Software, Andrei took the position of R&D Director of Microsoft Business Unit. In March 2006 Andrei Baronov co-founded Veeam Software with Ratmir Timashev and he is the company's CTO.
Baronov holds a PhD in Physics and Technology at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIT).



Tarry: Please tell us a little about yourself and you part experience as an entrepreneur? I believe you did sell you last firm to Quest.com?

Ratmir: You are right; Aelita Software was acquired by Quest Software in March of 2004. Aelita Software was one of the leading providers of systems management solutions for enterprise Windows environments.
You can find more information about acquisition here.

Tarry: Please tell us a bit about Veeam and the product line?

Ratmir: We decided to start a new company Veeam Software and enter this market for VM systems management b/c we believe that this market, like Windows NT was in 1995-96 when we started Aelita, is in its early stages, small but very fast growing and will be very big in a few years - again very similar to Windows enterprise systems management market.
We were thinking and making some research on how to improve PC performance in general. It was a few months ago and at the same time we decided to come up with some ideas to come back to enterprise systems management. We believe that our products are unique products so far and don’t have any direct competitors.
Currently we are only developing tools for VMware. We are planning to support other VMs (Microsoft, Xen and others) in the nearest future. We would like to become the leader in the VM enterprise infrastracture management, and will listen to customer’s requests and needs very carefully.

Tarry: Why did you think of investing in the free VMware Server while everyone is busy developing products around the paid versions like ESX Servers and Virtual Infrastructure?

Ratmir: Actually we are not limited to VMware Server: Veeam Scanner works with any VMware environment and our newly released Veeam Fast SCP is designed for ESX.
>

Tarry: Do you think the Veeam product will be seen as attractive products to the SMB market segment?

Ratmir: Certainly, it will. Small companies are becoming active virtual technologies users. As far as our products help to manage virtual infrastructure, we see as our customers companies of all sizes.


Tarry: Why would anyone want to buy a management software for a free product like VMware Server?

Ratmir: I believe there is no correlation between a free product and free management tools for it. If the tool is useful (it helps a company to reduce costs), it could be paid.


Tarry: Do you plan to introduce any more products in the coming future?

Ratmir: Yes. We are working hard to move forward our existing products and develop new ones. I can tell you by now, that our nearest plans are the release of Veeam Monitor with remote access, Monitor for ESX and Microsoft Virtual Server.
We are planning to become one of the major vendors in the VM management space, and will be releasing additional innovative products soon.


Once again, thank you for your time Ratmir and I wish you a lot of success with your new challenge!
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