Avere Systems Named a Finalist for the 2014 Red Herring Top 100 North America Award

Recognition Highlights Company Growth With Addition of Marquis Customers and Expansion Across Industries

PITTSBURGH - MAY 8, 2014 - Avere Systems, a leading provider of enterprise storage for cloud enabled data centers, announced today it has been selected as a finalist for Red Herring's Top 100 North America award, a prestigious list honoring the year's most promising private technology ventures from the North American business region.

"We are honored to be included as a Red Herring Top 100 Finalist, it is a strong validation of our company's accomplishments," said Ron Bianchini, CEO of Avere Systems. "Avere provides organizations with the ability to put an end to the rising cost and complexity of data storage and the freedom to store files anywhere - in the cloud or on premises - without sacrificing performance or security of their data. 2013 was a key year of expansion and innovation for our business and this recognition highlights that growth."

Red Herring has been selecting the most exciting and promising start-ups and "scale ups" since 1995. Finalists are still evaluated individually from a large pool of hundreds of candidates based across North America. Twenty major criteria underlie the scoring and process. They include, among others: the candidate company's addressable market size, its IP and patents, its financing, the proof of concept, trailing revenues and management's expertise. Each company goes through an individual interview after filling out a thorough submission, complemented by a due diligence. The list of finalists often includes the best performing and prominent companies of that year.

"The finalists list confirms the excellent choices made by entrepreneurs and VCs and the start-ups' solid roots in corporate America, embracing their innovations. By all metrics, it emphasizes the United States' entrepreneurial excellence," said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring.

This unique assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the company's actual track record and standing, which allows Red Herring to see past the "buzz" and make the list a valuable instrument for discovering and advocating the greatest business opportunities in the industry.

Finalist selections for the 2014 edition of the Red Herring 100 North America award are based upon technological innovation, management strength, market size, investor record, customer acquisition and financial health. During the several months leading up to the announcement, hundreds of companies in the fields of security, Web 2.0, software, hardware, life sciences, cloud, mobile and others completed their submissions to qualify for the award.

Finalists are asked to present their winning strategies at the Red Herring North America Forum in Monterey, Calif., May 14 to 16, 2014. The Top 100 winners will be announced at an awards ceremony the evening of May 16 at the event.

You can follow the Red Herring conference at https://twitter.com/digitalherring and the hashtag #RedHerring100.