Syncsort announces record 2015 results and promotes big data visionary to CEO

Clearlake Capital names Syncsort president Josh Rogers to lead Syncsort’s next phase of growth as chief executive officer and member of the company’s board of directors

Press releases

Woodcliff Lake, NJ | January 05, 2016

On the heels of record revenue, accelerating bookings growth and a substantial increase in profit in 2015, Syncsort, a global leader in mainframe and Big Data software and sponsored by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (“Clearlake”), today announced the promotion of Josh Rogers from President to CEO.

Syncsort’s “Big Iron to Big Data” technology strategy continues to pay dividends as the company invests organically and inorganically in industrial scale software running on fast-growing analytical platforms such as Apache Hadoop, Splunk, Apache Spark, and the cloud, as well as more mature platforms such as the IBM z Systems mainframe. This year the company delivered on this strategy through a number of key achievements:

  • A major new release of Ironstream, the market-leading solution for delivering IBM Systems z log data in real-time to Splunk for Security and IT Ops Analytics
  • The successful acquisition of William Data Systems, providing highly differentiated intellectual property and talent in the network analytics and security software domain to Syncsort, which were leveraged to provide the new capabilities in Ironstream
  • Significant open source community contributions related to bridging Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark with the IBM z Systems mainframe.
  • major new release of the award-winning Syncsort DMX-h data integration software that introduced an “intelligent execution” architecture that allows customers to design data flows once and deploy across multiple environments, including Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark, on premise and in the cloud
  • New additions to the ZPSaver Suite, mainframe software that provides effortless migration of compute-intensive sort, copy and compression workloads from general processors to IBM z Systems mainframe zIIP processors, allowing customers to dramatically reduce their mainframe costs

These achievements and the momentum around the Company’s “Big Iron to Big Data” strategy produced record financial results, including:

  • Greater than 200% increase in YOY revenue from new products related to Hadoop ETLSplunk and the IBM z Systems mainframe, and record revenue for the 48-year-old company
  • More than 30% growth in fourth quarter bookings

On the back of these strong financial results, the Company is promoting Josh Rogers to CEO. A 14-year technology industry veteran who joined Syncsort in 2009, Josh has served as President for the past three years and he has been responsible for leading the Company’s business operations and driving its aggressive expansion.

“As early as 2011, Josh recognized the power of emerging Big Data technologies such as Apache Hadoop and the important role data integration technology would play in taking advantage of them,” said Prashant Mehrotra, a partner at Clearlake. “As CEO, we’re confident that Josh’s leadership will allow Syncsort to continue its aggressive growth strategy and build on several important technology alliances Syncsort recently forged with industry leaders such as Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR, Qlik, Tableau, Splunk, Dell, Fujitsu, Cognizant and Amazon Web Services.”

Lonne Jaffe, who served as Syncsort’s CEO for the past two and a half years, employing his extensive M&A experience and technology expertise to advance the company’s growth strategy, will serve as a Senior Advisor to Syncsort’s Board of Directors going forward. “I am very excited about Syncsort’s future under Josh’s leadership, as the Company’s incredible journey continues,” said Jaffe. “Syncsort, with Josh at the helm, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the extraordinary demand for software that liberates data and existing budgets for use in advanced machine learning systems.”

Clearlake has also appointed Mr. Rogers as a member of Syncsort’s Board of Directors. Prior to becoming CEO, Josh served as President of Syncsort, leading global business operations, including sales, marketing, support and engineering. Earlier in his career at Syncsort, Josh was VP of Worldwide Field Sales, and before he joined Syncsort, he held leadership positions at IBM and Endeca Technologies.

“As adoption of Big Data technologies accelerates within the enterprise, customers will be looking to Syncsort to help them take advantage of their most critical data assets in these new environments as well as to reduce costs of legacy data platforms,” said Rogers. “Syncsort’s record results this year represent a significant milestone for our customers, partners and employees, and it’s truly a privilege to get the opportunity to lead Syncsort on the next phase of its multi-decade voyage.”

About Syncsort

Syncsort provides enterprise software that allows organizations to collect, integrate, sort and distribute more data in less time, with fewer resources and lower costs. Thousands of customers in more than 85 countries, including 87 of the Fortune 100 companies, use our fast and secure software to optimize and offload data processing workloads. Syncsort software provides specialized solutions spanning “Big Iron to Big Data,” including next gen analytical platforms such as Hadoop, cloud, and Splunk. For more than 40 years, customers have turned to Syncsort’s software and expertise to dramatically improve performance of their data processing environments, while reducing hardware and labor costs. Experience Syncsort at www.syncsort.com.

About Clearlake Capital Group

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is a private investment firm with a sector-focused approach. The firm seeks to partner with world-class management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to dynamic businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational and strategic expertise. The firm’s core target sectors include technology, communications and business services; industrials, energy and power; and consumer products and services. Clearlake currently has over $3.2 billion of assets under management. More information is available at www.clearlakecapital.com.