Data has become fundamental to our everyday lives, shaping everything from the family photos we store on our phones to air traffic safety.

‍

Data reliability is the business of Tuxera, which develops quality-assured, reliable data storage management software and networking technologies. The company specializes in file systems, flash memory management, networking protocols, and USB drivers for data. These critical applications protect data integrity, improve performance, and extend flash memory lifetime. As Tuukka Ahoniemi, CEO at Tuxera says, the company’s vision is to ensure that the data we rely on is protected and stored for as long as it is needed:

“All data lives somewhere physically. It needs to be handled and optimized. It has only a certain physical lifetime that we really want to maximize. Even in the cloud, it is physically stored somewhere inside the server infrastructure of that cloud vendor. Tuxera enables our customers, the innovators of today and tomorrow, to easily access, store and transfer data to build the next steps towards the future.”

‍

Data is now so ubiquitous, it surrounds everything we do, from the computer at work to a cellphone to picking up groceries on the way home. Kerri McConnell, VP Corporate Development at Tuxera says that with our reliance on data, reliability is key:

“The ability of the system to function is actually controlled by how reliable the data is. Tuxera makes software that stores data, helps it be transported through a network and supports various use cases for how that data is gathered, processed and moved from one place to another.”

‍

Moving data is one of the big challenges for our connected world as data can be stored in one country and used on the other side of the world. Antti Alila, Head of Enterprise Business Unit at Tuxera explains that speed of access is important for data to have actual use:

“Where we really shine is that we have been able to create and innovate capabilities that leverage hardware directly. That gives us a benefit of having such big transfer speeds that the other solutions cannot handle. When there is a need to transfer files really fast, Tuxera has a solution.”

‍

Moving and storing large amounts of data at speed is something that particularly affects automated vehicles for example. Bernd Niedermeier, Head of Automotive Business at Tuxera explains the scale of the challenge:

“In different systems, such as driver assist systems, a lot of sensors are collecting data from the street, including video and radar, as well as other forms of data. A lot of data gets consolidated in a way that decisions can be made such as when to turn, when to change lanes safely, or making the decision to brake. Of course, these decisions might have a big impact on the safety of persons inside the car, and also outside the car. There can be huge differences, which impact our customers, including reliability, the cost, the performance and so on. Our knowledge in that area really gives a lot of value to the customer.”

‍

In aerospace too, Kerri McConnell, says that Tuxera has applications for customers across many different industries that contribute to flying machines of every kind:

“Tuxera works with ground based systems, systems in airplanes, satellites and even space vehicles in the era of communications. There's a special piece of code that says I belong on this network and I can talk to the other devices on this network. Those are the types of pieces of data that are mission critical that our software protects.”

‍

Heather Goring says that space brings its own challenges for data:

“From a technology standpoint, the same challenges that we solved for industry are happening up in space. But we have to contend with radiation and devices that are solar powered. If you have a rover that's on the moon and it's on the dark side, it's going to power down. If that power down doesn't happen appropriately, you're going to lose that data. As you move up to space, you have to control all of that hostile environment.”

‍

Tukka Ahoniemi believes that for all the technology, it only ever serves human ingenuity and serves human needs:

“We have a responsibility to educate the industry and our customers about growing the competence and the talent within data management. We work closely with industrial organizations, events, standardization, boards, and universities to reach out to the communities and raise the competence and know-how within the industry. The possibilities in leveraging and processing huge amounts of data through things like mass machine learning and AI will define the next steps of mankind. We will be seeing systems and devices that utilize data in a way we could not imagine some decades ago and we will be right there, enabling these innovators of today and tomorrow to build the future.”