EMC Dedupe Whiz Jed Yueh Leaves to Do Startup

The Station is reporting today – exclusively, we believe — that EMC’s 34-year-old veep of product management Jedidiah Yueh, who started data backup and deduplication provider Avamar Technologies in a Southern California apartment in 1999 and sold it to EMC for $165 million in November 2006, has left the mother ship and is starting another company.

We’ve been briefed on it, but our lips are sealed until it comes out of stealth mode next year. All we can say at this point is that it’s a brilliant idea.

Yueh told us that his last official day was in January but that he had contracted with EMC since then to help with the transition of his leaving. He spoke at EMC World in May — and that was his last duty for the world’s largest storage infrastructure company.

The Station staged a Q&A with him shortly after the acquisition, and it brought out a lot of good information about “dedupe” that people didn’t know at the time.

“EMC was really good to me and Avamar, and despite this terrible economy, we’re looking to post a really big number this quarter,” Yueh told us. “We do as much [business] in a quarter now as we did in two or three years at Avamar as a stand-alone company.

“That being said, I’m kind of a startup guy, and I’d like to build a real, significant company — not a company that gets sold. Because we’re doing so well, [my exit] was all on good terms.”

Avamar was an early dedupe company, along with Data Domain, Quantumand a few others. Data deduplication, which eliminates redundant data throughout the storage network, was a major hole in EMC’s product line at the time. Now it’s being implemented throughout most of EMC’s catalog. When it was incorporated into EMC, Avamar brought with it 15 of the Fortune 50 companies and about 400 customers overall.

Jed, way to go, and good luck in the new venture. We’ll be keeping a close eye on what you’re doing. Maybe you’ll give us the exclusive when you unveil your new company!

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Note to all our readers in the U.S. and environs: Have a great Fourth of July, and take it easy with the fireworks!