Infoblox

Every founder has an interesting story behind why he or she founded their company. Sometimes it is because they feel that there is something lacking in their industry, and other times it is because they feel burnt out in their current position. Better yet, sometimes founders find a spark and feel they need to chase it with everything they’ve got. Infoblox too has a reason for its existence and that reason is attributed to founder Stuart Bailey’s frustration with network downtime! Here’s a look at how Bailey grew Infoblox into a company leader worth millions of dollars.

Removing Frustrations

Stuart Bailey was researching database architectures at the University of Illinois in Chicago and was quite frustrated with the University’s network maintenance. The framework was down quite often and technicians took quite some time to get the network back into play.

While conversing with colleagues and other students across the city, he realized that this was a frustration they all shared. This common frustration gave Bailey the idea to look for ways to decrease this network downtime, and soon enough Infoblox was formed. The company made history for being the first startup to receive investments from Sequoia Capital via a cold call or cold e-mail.

Stuart founded Infoblox at the age of 28, prior to which he worked for Dr. Robert Grossman at the National Center for Data Mining. He spent five years there learning about data architecture and being involved with the building of the National Scalable Cluster Project. He also helped in guiding teams to win numerous accolades at the High-Performance Computing Challenge at the Supercomputing conference.

Growth and Success of Infoblox

The company was founded in Chicago in 1999 and is a gold-standard in the field of software and hardware manufacturing and development. In 2003, Infoblox shifted its base to Santa Clara, California in search of cheaper technical labour.

Stuart Bailey, who founded the company is still a part of Infoblox, serving at its chief scientist. An increase in the need for network management and risks to internet security through hacks led to a rise in demand for the company’s products.

In 2012, over 7.8 million new malware threats emerged and threats to mobile phones grew by 1,000% with over 865 successful breaches which compromised more than 174 million records. In 2007, they acquired Ipanto, a French startup and brought out IPAM WinConnect appliances. Infoblox acquired Netcordia in 2010 which helped consolidate its hold on the network task automation market.

Infoblox raised funds through five different rounds from 2000 to 2005, bringing in over $80 million via Sequoia Capital. The company went public at a rate of $16 per share in 2012 to raise extra capital. After the first day of trading, the stock price rose by over 40%. Since going public, the company has grown in terms of employees and revenues.

In 2013, the company faced some revenue deficit due to a predicted slowdown within the industry which rose due to business fluctuations. The unique selling point for Infoblox products has been their combination of tools to hack servers, reduce operational expenditure, and make network management more efficient. Also, the company has great social policies, offering environment-friendly appliances since 2006.

Owning the Market

Infoblox now offers services which help in maintaining DNS servers, IP address management and network management. The company, therefore, grew from strength to strength and by 2013, boasted of over 6,000 customers. The company grew over 40% in 2013, bringing in $63.1 million in revenues. As per a Gartner report, by 2015 the company held almost 49.9 percent of the market, which is worth over $533 million.

A year later, the company became a clear market share leader in the fields of DNS, DHCP and IP address management with other players having less than 15% market share. In 2016, they acquired cyber threat company IID, improving their hold in the security services field.

The same year, Infoblox was purchased by Vista Equity Partners for $1.6 billion. The next year the company expanded by opening an office in Tacoma, for cybersecurity research. In 2019, Infoblox updated their Network Identity Operating System and extended support for Google Cloud Platform.

Infoblox continues to grow at alarming rates, and is now an established market leader with more than 50% market share. The company boasts of over 8,000 customers, which includes 93 of the Fortune 100 and 350 of the Fortune 500. Overall, the company extends its services to 58% of the companies that make up the Fortune 1000. Thus, Infoblox powers and helps run most of the world’s most sophisticated networks and companies.