The Next Chapter

The Next Chapter.

As many of you know, I co-founded Joyent 10 years ago when I was working as a scientist and looking for a better way to run compute on my data. What started as a small solution to a personal problem has grown into a tremendous company and a significant player in the cloud computing business. Just recently, in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, we were described as “exceptionally innovative” and noted as having a “unique vision.” I’m thrilled that we received this recognition, but also not surprised. Building innovative technology has always been a core value of ours, and it permeates all that we do, whether it’s sponsoring and nurturing game changing open source technologies like Node.js or innovating a new, cloud-native way to do virtualization, liberating our customers to create, invent and scale.

In short, that “think differently” spirit of innovation is built into our DNA and we’ve accomplished many amazing things living by it. It’s also something I value, and for that reason, I’ve made the decision to embody it in a new way by moving on to pursue new ideas and projects. I’ve loved the process of building Joyent into what it is today, as any respectable founder wishes, you look for people better than yourself who can go execute and you let them do that. The company is in great shape, with a brilliant management team and a change-the-world technology vision in very capable hands with Bryan Cantrill.

As an advisor, I will stay closely connected to Joyent. Although my departure is undoubtedly bittersweet, the company is in a phenomenal place right now, building upon a strong year of working with great customers and partners, and of course launching the Joyent Manta Storage Service and big data platform as a service innovation this past June.

I believe that Joyent’s Manta compute on storage innovation will disrupt the storage and big data analytics markets, even as it is just starting to get major traction. Over the past 60 days since launch I’ve watched as it has captured the imagination of our customers, partners, the media and the developer community at large. It’s been particularly gratifying to watch as the community explores the endless possibilities of Joyent Manta, often blogging and tweeting about the business benefits and use cases they’ve discovered. Now, more than ever, I’m confident that Joyent is ready to lead and define the future of cloud computing in support of the real-time web and mobile applications of the 21st century.

The Joyent team is empowered and energized by our vision, but I, and they, know we’re just getting started. We’ve got an exciting and unique product roadmap for 2014 and a team of passionate people poised to make it happen.

I’m proud of everyone at Joyent and of what we have built. I’m excited both for the company and to have the opportunity to explore my own new projects - so it’s really the best of both worlds. Joyent will no doubt continue do great things, and I will continue to participate in the company’s success as an advisor.

It has truly been an amazing journey and honor. Thank you all for the support along the way. If you have any ideas, comments, questions or concerns, please let me know, I’ll still be @jasonh on twitter, I’m on LinkedIn and I can also be reached at jason@jasonhoffman.org.



Post written by Jason Hoffman