# Thomas Isakovich

> Thomas Isakovich is the founder and CEO of Nimbus Data, the flash-storage company behind the ExaDrive DC100 - the 100-terabyte solid state drive that, years after its 2018 debut, still has no equal in capacity. He built and sold his first storage system as a teenager, launched TrueSAN Networks from his Stanford dorm room, watched it collapse in the dot-com bust at age 26, then started over with Nimbus Data and self-funded more than 90% of its growth into a profitable global business spanning 200 customers in 12 countries. He is a rare bird in Silicon Valley: a hardware founder who turned down the venture-capital playbook, kept the company his own, and went back to finish his Stanford degree purely because he missed thinking.

- **Role:** CEO and Founder at Nimbus Data
- **Organizations:** Nimbus Data, TrueSAN Networks, Oracle, IBM Almaden Research Center, Stanford University
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. Political Science (honors, top 10% of class), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Created the ExaDrive DC100, the world's largest solid state drive at 100TB, still unmatched in capacity years after launch, Self-funded more than 90% of Nimbus Data's growth, building a profitable global company without venture capital, Grew Nimbus Data to 700+ installations across 200 customers in 12 countries

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Designed and sold his first storage system as a teenager
- **1995-1997** — Began at Stanford; rowed and worked at IBM's Almaden Research Center and Oracle's Network Computer division
- **1999** — Founded TrueSAN Networks from his Stanford dorm room; took a leave of absence to run it
- **2003** — TrueSAN Networks collapsed in the dot-com bust when Isakovich was 26; founded Nimbus Data
- **2004** — Returned full-time to Stanford, switching focus to political science
- **2006** — Graduated from Stanford with honors, completing a thesis he calls one of his proudest accomplishments
- **2018** — Launched the ExaDrive DC100 - the world's largest SSD at 100TB - on March 19
- **2020** — Added cheaper 64TB QLC ExaDrive to complement the 100TB flagship
- **2024** — Continued building Nimbus Data's FlashRack and HALO software for cloud, AI, enterprise and edge workloads

## Achievements

- Created the ExaDrive DC100, the world's largest solid state drive at 100TB, still unmatched in capacity years after launch
- Self-funded more than 90% of Nimbus Data's growth, building a profitable global company without venture capital
- Grew Nimbus Data to 700+ installations across 200 customers in 12 countries
- Named inventor on multiple patents, including Nimbus Data's Iridium controllers
- Published author and recognized speaker on entrepreneurship and storage innovation
- Graduated Stanford with honors in the top 10% of his class after a seven-year entrepreneurial detour

## Latest updates

- **2024-08** — Nimbus Data launched FlashRack, a next-generation all-flash storage system, announced by Isakovich on LinkedIn.
- **2024-04** — Isakovich publicly forecast the decline of legacy flash-array vendors as disaggregated, software-defined storage gains ground.

## Links

- Website: https://nimbusdata.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tisakovich
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/nimbusdata
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/NimbusData

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/thomas-isakovich
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-21