Lance Smith Joins Primary Data as Chief Executive Officer

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 4, 2014) - Data virtualization startup Primary Data today announced that information technology industry veteran Lance Smith has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Previously President and Chief Operating Officer at Fusion-io, Smith provided strategy development and operational leadership to grow the flash memory innovator from its startup phase alongside co-founder David Flynn. Now co-founder of Primary Data, Flynn selected Smith to lead the company as CEO, enabling Flynn to become Chief Technology Officer and focus on his passion of developing industry-changing technology.

"Getting data beyond boundaries through virtualization is essential to finally unlocking the mobility required for agile open computing platforms, webscale growth, the Internet of Things, and the shift to the cloud," said Smith. "I'm delighted to join David and Rick White once again at Primary Data along with the team of visionary executives. We're excited to bring our talents together again to create solutions that enable companies to gain more visibility, insight, and control over their data."

Smith joins Primary Data from SanDisk Corporation, where he became Senior Vice President and General Manager of the ioMemory Solutions division following the SanDisk acquisition of Fusion-io. Previous to SanDisk, Smith was President and Chief Operating Officer at Fusion-io, where he provided executive leadership across operations, engineering, and strategy to lead the company through rapid growth and global expansion. At Fusion-io, Smith played an essential role in architecting development strategies, cultivating relationships with key customers, and expanding operations in China and other high growth markets. Prior to Fusion-io, Mr. Smith was a co-founder, general manager and vice president at Cupertino semiconductor company RMI, where he led the communication and networking processor group that was acquired by Netlogic and then by Broadcom. He has also held senior executive positions of companies that transacted for billions of dollars, including the initial public offering of Fusion-io, the acquisition of NexGen by AMD, and the startup Pacific Broadband being sold to Juniper Networks.

Primary Data is a startup in stealth mode developing data virtualization solutions that improve enterprise efficiency and agility by aligning applications, servers, and storage systems. Through data virtualization, the Primary Data platform simplifies complexity and boosts efficiency across systems with existing infrastructure.

"Lance is an inspiring leader who captures opportunities through strategic vision and excellence in execution, and I am thrilled that he is leading us at Primary Data," said Flynn. "History has shown that we make an excellent team, and I'm pleased to be working together again to solve fundamental challenges for modern enterprises. I was CTO of Fusion-io for the first few years, and with Lance at the helm, I can now dedicate my full attention to technology development as our team architects breakthrough solutions that deliver data mobility through virtualization."

Primary Data is launching at DEMO Fall 2014 in San Jose. To attend Primary Data's Launch-A-Rama party in San Jose on November 19, RSVP at www.primarydata.com/rsvp. To receive the Primary Data discount for registering to attend DEMO, please visit www.demo.com/D14PDTICKET. Software engineers and IT industry professionals interested in joining Primary Data can review open positions at www.primarydata.com.

About Primary Data
Primary Data is a startup in stealth mode developing data virtualization solutions that improve enterprise efficiency and agility by aligning applications, servers, and storage systems. Our platform simplifies complexity and boosts efficiency across systems with existing infrastructure, giving companies new a new level of visibility, insight and control over their most valuable asset: Their data. To stay connected as we unveil more, visit us at www.primarydata.com.