No merry Christmas for SwiftStack staff: Enterprise cloud storage biz axes workers amid strategy shift

Enterprise cloud storage biz SwiftStack got smaller on Wednesday when it laid off an unspecified number of people. The Register heard that something like half the company had been let go, but a spokesperson for the San Francisco-based outfit insisted that was an exaggeration while declining clarify how many people were …

[Alister]

unfortunately, some valued members of the company were affected

We valued them precisely, and found they weren't worth keeping.

[Anonymous Coward]

Or

We valued them precisely, found we couldn't afford them *and* maintain our bonus, so decided to get rid of them and replace them with cheaper alternatives when the furore dies down.

Whatever, I feel sorry for those affected, especially at this time of year.

[hmv]

Nothing spells out "arsehole" quite so much as making people redundant at Xmas.

[PyroBrit]

TBH. Better to be redundant before xmas so you can react and change your spending limits. Trying to juggle redundancy and the credit card bills after Christmas would be worse.

[Anonymous Coward]

Pfff, the dance.

"...if they layoff more than more than 50 employees within 30 days."

So Swifty could lay off 50 of thier 100 employees this month, then 50 the next. It can't be far from that considering they answered the question by not answering the question.

You: Did you fire them?

Me: Weeellllll, let me tell you about our strategy.

I think journalism is the second profession of any professional journalist. Thier first passion is... the dance!! Olé Olé !!

[cloudguy]

SwiftStack Retreats to Niche Storage Player

Well, the number of independent mass market object storage software vendors has gotten smaller with SwiftStack retreating to niche market player status. Going five years without a new funding round and only $24M raised means you can no longer afford to run with the big dogs. That leaves Cloudian and Scality as the independent survivors of mass market object storage software. Both of these companies have raised approx. $200M each over the past eight years. Both companies are still entertaining the notion that an IPO could be in their future despite the fact that no object-storage startup has been able to do it. SwiftStack's long term future looks like it will need to get bought to survive.