Cirtas is one of those cloud startups with a fairy tale story you don’t tire of hearing.  Launched last September with $10 million in funding, the cloud storage company gained early support from investors like Amazon, NEA and Lightspeed Venture Partners.  Having a few months to acclimate, Cirtas is ready for round two, with a fresh batch of funding amounting to $22.5 million, with continued support from Amazon.

Shasta Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, with all its initial investors participating as well, led this funding round.  Ravi Mohan of Shasta Ventures is taking a board seat with Cirtas, though the company’s new CEO, Gary Messiana, is the one armed to take Cirtas far into the cloud’s bright future.

There are a few things Messiana considered when weighing his options around joining the Cirtas team, and looking at his personal beliefs around developing a successful company, Cirtas hit all the major points.  Building a gateway for storage, determining where the bulk of the action is taking place in the cloud industry, and when to go to market were just some of the things Messiana outlined, basing his conclusions on years of experience, namely at Netl and Dilligent Software, where he served as CEO.  Another key trait of Messiana’s?  Successful exists for startups.

Messiana finds that Cirtas “is a great place to build a really big company.  There’s lots of ways we plug into local storage, but we also determine the best way to store data (be it secondary cloud storage, caching, etc.), and determining how to get data on and off the cloud most efficiently,” he tells me in an interview.

Cirtas has also focused its efforts on the enterprise, knowing this is a market truly in need of storage services and beyond.  “The enterprise tends to be conservative, and prefers the hardware that’s already prepped for its purposes,” Messiana continues, explaining some of Cirtas’ early findings in its months since launching its public beta.  “Dealing with APIs and software downloads isn’t as trustworthy for clients.”

Addressing the issues surrounding software distribution, installations, maintenance and integration is part of a growing trend we’re seeing in the cloud industry, with a number of startups helping clients to circumvent vendor lock-in.  It can be a fine line to walk, as building relationships with vendor channels is another important aspect of developing a startup in the cloud industry.

As far as Messiana’s team goes, he’s anxious to build it out as well.  That’s not to say Cirtas’ existing members aren’t doing well—Messiana also tells me of the importance behind knowledgeable employees, especially when dealing with cloud storage.  Harping on the lack of innovation the industry has seen in past decades (though he recognizes the developments around efficiency and lowering costs), Messiana will push Cirtas as a company that “understands the network side of things, as our team members do.  Cirtas has deep storage expertise, and that means less risk for clients.”

Turns out, clients are pretty important in Cirtas’ long-term equation.  “You can’t really ramp up until you get a feel for the market,” Messina explains.  “We have clients in pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and non-profits, where we’ve been able to penetrate some verticals…whenever you put a product in the market, you’re learning from that product.  Our customers have really been pushing the envelope.”

Messiana concluded our interview with a poignant point about demanding clients, which can often cause a startup to lose focus, or realize they’re not equipped to properly handle the task at hand.  Where other cloud storage companies may still be focusing on back-up products, Cirtas is well prepared to aggressively move forward, managing and expounding on its clients’ needs.

“We’ve increased our footprint on the cloud, grown our customer and employee base, added talent to the management staff, and we have enough cash to continue on this path,” Messiana says.  “We don’t have to shortcut or rush our products to market, and we can move forward in the right way.  I’ve had the misfortune of doing the opposite, taking the shortcuts you need to get your product to market and gain traction, just to go back to investors and ask for more money. With that [scenario], you don’t get to do things right the first time.”