Jay Leone
Jay Leone
Territory Sales Manager
📍 Northern California · ExaGrid Systems

Your data is safe.
Your backups are fast.
Let's talk.

I represent ExaGrid across Northern California — bringing the industry's only Tiered Backup Storage solution to enterprises and public-sector organizations ready to eliminate slow backups, forklift upgrades, and ransomware vulnerability. My background spans over 20 years in enterprise infrastructure, including a decade as an enterprise technology buyer — which means I approach every conversation with the perspective of someone who has sat on your side of the table.

Get in Touch Learn About ExaGrid
5,000+
Active ExaGrid Customers Worldwide
Veeam · Commvault · NetBackup · Rubrik · Arcserve · HYCU · Oracle RMAN
70%
Win Rate
vs. Dell, HPE, NetApp, Pure Storage in competitive opportunities
40–60%
Faster Backups
vs. inline deduplication appliances like Data Domain
99%+
Maintenance Renewal
Customers keep renewing — because it just works
8/10
POCs Choose ExaGrid
Test it in your environment — most never look back
How I Can Help You

The right experience for complex decisions

Protecting Northern California organizations

As ExaGrid's Territory Sales Manager for Northern California, I work with IT leaders at enterprises and public-sector organizations — from state agencies and universities to healthcare systems and mid-market companies — helping them solve real problems: backup windows that keep growing, ransomware exposure in their retention data, and infrastructure that forces expensive forklift upgrades every few years.

Every conversation I have is grounded in a deep understanding of what good data protection looks like operationally. I spent a decade as an enterprise technology buyer and infrastructure architect, evaluating and negotiating millions of dollars of infrastructure investments. I've run competitive bake-offs. I've built TCO models for senior leadership. I know exactly what gets deals approved — and what doesn't.

A consultative approach, every time

I don't lead with product spec sheets. I lead with questions. What does your backup window look like today? Have you tested a recovery lately? What's your ransomware response plan if your backups are encrypted? These conversations reveal whether ExaGrid is genuinely the right solution — and in my experience, when the problem is real, ExaGrid wins the evaluation 70% of the time against Dell Data Domain, HPE, NetApp, and Pure Storage.

My background in enterprise sales methodology — MEDDPIC, Challenger Sale, and value-based selling — means I'm disciplined about understanding your buying process, your budget cycle, and your decision framework. I'm also fluent in public-sector procurement: CMAS, ETC, SIR, and NASPO contract vehicles for government and education accounts that need a faster path to purchase.

Powered by AI — for your benefit

I integrate AI tools — Claude, GPT, and Gemini — into every phase of my work: account research, competitive analysis, proposal generation, and meeting preparation. The practical result is that I show up more informed, more prepared, and able to build better business cases faster than traditional approaches. I've also built AI-powered applications myself, which means when customers ask how AI fits into their infrastructure strategy, I can have that conversation from genuine experience.

⚡ Enterprise & SLED Coverage

Northern California territory spanning enterprise, state and local government, education, and healthcare. Deep experience navigating complex procurement environments and long-cycle infrastructure decisions.

CMAS · ETC · SIR · NASPO · FedRAMP · StateRAMP

🔗 Channel & Partner Ecosystem

Daily co-sell with VAR partners, OEM ecosystems, and distributors. Joint account mapping, partner enablement, and co-marketing to connect the right organizations with ExaGrid's solution.

Veeam · Commvault · Veritas · Rubrik integrations

🏗️ Technical Depth You Can Trust

20+ years of enterprise infrastructure experience — storage, compute, networking, virtualization, and data protection — allows me to engage credibly at every level of your organization, from the server room to the boardroom.

NVMe · VMware · Data Protection · DR/BCP · Ransomware Recovery

🧪 Free POC — No Risk, No Pressure

ExaGrid offers the easiest POC in the industry — deployed in your own environment, with your real data and your real backup application. 8 out of 10 organizations who test it choose to keep it.

Test it before you buy · Full production environment · No hidden costs
The Technology

ExaGrid Tiered Backup Storage

ExaGrid invented a new category. Not primary storage. Not an inline deduplication appliance. Something better than both — built from the ground up for how modern backup actually works.

System Architecture
Tier 1 — Front End
Disk-Cache Landing Zone
All inbound backup data lands here at full disk speed — no inline deduplication, no compute overhead slowing writes. Most recent backups kept in native format for instant restores and sub-minute VM boots.
Tier 2 — Retention
Deduplicated Repository
Long-term retention at the lowest possible cost. Post-process global deduplication runs in background — never competing with backup or restore I/O. Non-network-facing tier creates a true tiered air gap.
Security Layer — AI-Powered
Retention Time-Lock for Ransomware Recovery
Auto Detect & Guard uses AI to learn your normal delete patterns. Anomalous activity triggers alerts and auto-extends the delayed delete policy. Delayed deletes + immutable objects = backups ransomware can't touch.
⚡

Fastest Backups & Instant Restores

Direct-to-disk Landing Zone eliminates inline deduplication from the write path entirely. Most recent backup always in native format — sub-minute VM boots, 20× faster restores vs. rehydration-based systems.

40–60% faster than Dell Data Domain and similar appliances
📈

Backup Window Stays Fixed as Data Grows

Scale-out architecture adds full appliances — compute, memory, network, and disk together. Six hours at 100TB is still six hours at 1PB. No forklift upgrades. No controller bottlenecks. No obsolescence.

Up to 2.7PB full backup in a single system · Mix any appliance size or age
🛡️

Comprehensive Ransomware Recovery

Non-network-facing Repository Tier (tiered air gap) + delayed deletes + immutable objects + AI anomaly detection. When the attack happens, your retained backups are intact and recoverable — guaranteed.

The only backup storage with AI-Powered Retention Time-Lock
💰

Lowest Cost — Now and Over Time

50% lower total system cost vs. competing approaches. 5-year price protection. Pay-as-you-grow. No planned product obsolescence means today's investment stays viable for years.

5-year price protection · No forklift upgrades · 99%+ maintenance renewal
🤝

Named Level 2 Support Engineer — Always

Every ExaGrid customer gets a dedicated named Level 2 engineer. Same senior technical resource every call — someone who knows your system and your environment. Unmatched in the industry.

99%+ maintenance renewal says customers agree
Why Organizations Choose ExaGrid

Numbers that tell the story

ExaGrid has earned these results by building something that genuinely solves problems traditional backup storage cannot. 20 consecutive quarters of positive EBITDA and free cash flow. A record 2025. These aren't talking points — they're what happens when the product works.

70%

Win Rate in Competitive Evaluations

When ExaGrid enters an opportunity against primary storage or inline deduplication appliances from Dell, HPE, NetApp, or Pure Storage — customers choose ExaGrid 70% of the time.

5,000+

Active Customers Worldwide

Organizations across enterprise, SLED, healthcare, and MSP verticals trust ExaGrid to protect their most critical data — backed by 25+ backup application integrations.

8/10

POCs Convert to Purchases

ExaGrid's free, in-production POC program is the easiest in the industry. When organizations test it against their real workloads and real data — 8 out of 10 decide to keep it.

99%+

Maintenance Renewal Rate

The strongest signal in enterprise technology: customers keep renewing. Named Level 2 support engineers, proactive health monitoring, and all upgrades included in maintenance.

50%

Lower Total System Cost

Compared to scale-up controller/disk-shelf architectures, ExaGrid's scale-out approach cuts total system cost by 50% — upfront and over time — by eliminating forklift upgrades.

20×

Faster VM Restores

The Landing Zone keeps the most recent backup in native format — no rehydration required. VM boots and restores run 20× faster than solutions storing only deduplicated data.

Let's Connect

Ready to have a real conversation?

Whether you're actively evaluating backup storage, dealing with a growing backup window, or just want to understand why ExaGrid wins 70% of competitive evaluations — I'm always glad to connect.

jleone@exagrid.com linkedin.com/in/jaymleone exagrid.com
Exa Grid

ExaGrid offers a free, no-pressure Proof of Concept program — deployed in your own production environment with your real backup application and real data. No vendor lock-in. No hidden costs. Just results you can verify yourself.

Request a Free POC 8 out of 10 who test it · choose to keep it