Instaclustr Sees Rapid Growth as Enterprise Demand for Open Source Data Technologies Accelerates
Redwood City, California – September 10, 2020 – Instaclustr, delivering reliability at scale through fully managed open source data technologies, today announced the appointment of its new Chief Executive Officer, Peter Lilley.
Instaclustr’s business has grown at an annual rate of 70% since launching in 2014, with annual recurring revenue on its managed platform now approaching $20 million. “Open source technologies continue to become more and more appealing within enterprise environments,” said Ben Levin, Instaclustr board chairman and founder and Co-CEO of Level Equity, an Instaclustr investor. “Increasingly, businesses understand just how dramatic a cost and performance impact open source data solutions can have on their cloud transformations. Instaclustr has really cracked the code on how to deliver those mission-critical technologies cost-efficiently, without any vendor lock-in, and through a fully-managed platform. As open source demand among enterprises continues to swell, we expect Instaclustr to see an exceptional and sustained growth trajectory.”
Lilley is an Instaclustr co-founder and moves to the CEO position from his previous role as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. He brings with him more than 25 years of technical and executive experience in the information services industry. Prior to co-founding Instaclustr, Lilley was CEO of cybersecurity provider Stratsec. He guided the company through startup and growth phases that resulted in Stratsec’s successful exit via acquisition to BAE Systems.
Lilley takes over the role from Peter Nichol, who steps down following a planned five-year stint to scale the company internationally. Nichol nearly quadrupled revenue over the past three years as Instaclustr expanded its global team and continued to add new technologies to its open source data-layer platform. As he transitions toward retirement, Nichol will remain with Instaclustr as a senior advisor and board director, helping to look after strategic accounts and working with Lilley on strategy and future growth plans.
“I’m both tremendously excited and deeply grateful for this opportunity to serve Instaclustr as its CEO,” said Lilley. “Peter Nichol has been extraordinary in building Instaclustr to where it is today, and we’re all excited to have his insight remain close at hand. I’m thankful to everyone here that has worked to make the company all that it is today, and look forward to guiding Instaclustr to its next achievements.”
“Open source adoption at the data layer is undergoing particularly strong momentum as businesses seek to significantly reduce costs without impacting performance or scalability,” said Nichol. “Instaclustr’s managed platform has reliably delivered those benefits to organizations across industries, and the company will continue to expand its platform ecosystem and international customer base under Peter Lilley’s leadership.”
Instaclustr is also announcing that its Chief Revenue Officer, Steve Francis, will now lead the company’s global go-to-market (GTM) strategy. As CRO, Francis directs Instaclustr’s worldwide sales and customer success teams. His responsibilities include revenue growth, customer acquisition, and customer retention, in addition to now driving Instaclustr’s GTM capacity.
“The fact that Instaclustr provides such a powerful and ever-expanding platform of complementary and 100% open source data-layer technologies – all expertly managed by our extraordinary support team – makes it a pleasure to bring these solutions to our diverse customer base,” said Steve Francis, CRO, Instaclustr. “I’m excited to steer our GTM strategy and enable more businesses to understand the competitive advantages Instaclustr brings to the table. I also look forward to working with Peter Lilley, who is bringing valuable and proven experience leading and scaling technology service businesses like ours.”