By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
Washington-based Izon Data is poised to break into the rapidly growing global software-as-a-service market.
Scott Clayton, Izon Data’s president and chief technology officer, has developed a highly specialized computer that collects and analyzes data. Clayton said Izon Data will offer the computer, or software, to service subscribers on a monthly basis.
The computer is being marketed to biotechnology, bioprocessing, process-manufacturing, energy-production, agriculture and research-science companies, helping those target companies turn random data into useful information, Clayton said.
“Our target market is incredibly broad. Companies all over the world need these services,” Clayton said.
Clayton said his company’s software is designed to collect and analyze data as quickly as possible.
“We don’t tell them (subscribers) what their data means. They make decisions based on what the data means to them,” Clayton said. “We get it into a place where it can be analyzed.”
Clayton said the data being collected has time value measured in opportunity cost.
“Business and research organizations can produce large amounts of data quickly,” he said. “All this comes down to is the long delay between data production and shared data. There are missed opportunities in that time.”
Clayton expects to have his software product on the market by April. He started Izon Data from scratch in March 2009 after losing his job at Hackney, where he was director of information technology.
Prior to working at Hackney from 2004 to 2009, Clayton worked for a software company in Silicon Valley for 15 years during the height of the Internet boom.
Research and information technology is in Clayton’s blood.
He was born and raised in Ithaca, N.Y., the son of a Cornell University professor. Clayton attended Cornell to study computer science, before enlisting in the Navy as a crypto-linguist specializing in Mandarin-Chinese.
While stationed in Hawaii, Clayton received a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Chaminade University in Honolulu.
Following an honorable discharge from the Navy, Clayton made his way to northern California and Silicon Valley. But with the boom and bust of the Internet, Clayton and his wife sought a better place to raise a family.
“We decided to raise our family somewhere more in line with our social values. North Carolina was the place to be,” Clayton said.
Clayton said he has genealogical roots in eastern North Carolina, noting that his grandmother was born and raised in Ayden.
“I couldn’t be any happier. I love it here,” he said.
And, Clayton said, the business community has welcomed his upstart company with open arms. Izon Data is a member of the Committee of 100 and the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce.
“I could easily take my company somewhere else. This company can exist anywhere,” he said, adding that he has no intentions of relocating.
Clayton also is trying to fuel Washington’s economy by raising money for what he called Izon Data’s $500,000 early stage funding round with local investors.
“I want to keep the money in town and create a return on investments,” he said.
Clayton said his early investors include professionals and business people in the Beaufort County-Pitt County region and representatives of biotechnology and process-industry companies.
Clayton said he hired his first employee in December 2009, and he expects to employ between 24 and 36 software programmers and technical-support representatives within the next three years.
And he wants his employees to be from the region, as well.
“I’m going to hire out of the community-college system,” Clayton said, adding that he will work with instructors at Beaufort County Community College, Pitt Community College and Craven Community College to identify qualified employment candidates for the company.
“I want to create opportunities for highly motivated, educated individuals,” he said.