JetStream Software Inc., an innovator in cloud data protection, today announced Series A funding of $7.7 million to advance the company's unique technologies that enable managed service providers (MSPs) and cloud service providers (CSPs) to deliver disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) and continuous data protection to enterprise customers, government agencies, and research and educational organizations.

Led by Digital Alpha Advisors, LLC, the Series A investment is also supported by JetStream Software's private and institutional seed investors. New to the funding round is Illuminate Ventures. The investment will support continued product development, innovative go-to-market strategies, and increased engagement with key strategic partners.

Many information technology operations are rapidly shifting from on-premises systems and software to cloud-based services. Data protection is the top use case for enterprise hybrid cloud. As a part of this trend, data protection, disaster recovery and business continuity are increasingly provided by trusted MSPs and CSPs, who often lack native cloud DR capability. This shift presents new challenges and opportunities in the multibillion-dollar market for data management software.

JetStream Software's flagship product, JetStream DR, is a first-of-its-kind solution designed specifically for cloud-based disaster recovery and business continuity. The software empowers service providers to deliver near-zero recovery point objectives (RPOs) to maximize data protection as well as near-zero recovery time objectives (RTOs) to maximize system recovery and availability. Additional technical innovations include:

• Differentiated New Technology: Continuous data replication through VMware vSphere IO Filters
• Unmatched Performance: Robust, high-throughput, fault-tolerant data replication and VM failover to recovery sites
• Cost Efficiency: Direct data replication into any S3-compatible object store, for data recovery

The JetStream DR software is compatible with any type of datastore, including VMware Virtual SAN or Virtual Volumes, traditional block or file storage, or any hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) from any vendor. MSPs/CSPs can provide VM recovery for all types of customers from a single, centrally-managed environment to a large-scale data center infrastructure.

With the scalability and cost efficiency of VM recovery from object storage, plus compatibility with all types of virtualized environments, JetStream DR enables MSPs/CSPs to realize cloud economics in their DR service offerings. By replacing legacy, single-tenant data protection systems and recovery processes running on-premises, customers benefit from more convenient adoption and management, better performance, and overall lower cost of ownership.

On the investment, Digital Alpha Managing Partner Rick Shrotri said, "We are excited to invest in a team providing a highly differentiated technology with critical advantages for DR and business continuity as the market becomes increasingly cloud-centric. JetStream Software has developed a unique data management platform that will play a key role in the cloud transformation of the data protection industry. This initial investment by Digital Alpha will help JetStream Software add key contributors to its team and pursue larger business opportunities and strategic relationships. As the team achieves these objectives over the near term, we look forward to continued investment in the company."

The investment decision process included rigorous technical testing, commercial validation from channel partners, and synergy with the Digital Alpha cloud portfolio, including Cloudian and UKCloud.

Tom Critser, CEO, JetStream Software, said of the investment, "Digital Alpha brings unique advantages to our business and a strategic vision that sees our business leading the enormous transformation that is happening in our industry. The Digital Alpha portfolio is characterized by game-changing players in cloud transformation, and we will benefit greatly from Digital Alpha's financial support, shared strategic vision, and deep industry relationships."

In conjunction with the investment, Digital Alpha Principal Aurin Bhattacharjee will join the board of directors of JetStream Software. Mr. Bhattacharjee has more than seven years of experience at Google, most recently managing M&A strategy, competitive intelligence, and go-to-market planning for the Google Cloud Strategy and Operations team. He was previously with Google's Corporate Finance team, where he worked on investments, financings and acquisitions.