Thanks to continued high demand for backup, management and replication technologies, storage software revenues grew 12.6 percent to $8.9 billion last year, according to IDC.
Network Appliance, Inc. today agreed to buy partner
and data protection software maker Topio for $160 million cash, fleshing out
an important component of its portfolio.
Designed to build on NetApp’s NearStore VTL for data center backup and Open
Systems SnapVault for remote office backup, Topio’s Data Protection Suite
(TDPS) lets customers replicate, protect and serve data over any distance.
With TDPS, updates to production data are continuously sent over the existing IP network as they happen. Software at the remote site processes the data stream to ensure updates are applied so they match production site
data.
This can be accomplished no matter the distance between nodes, and regardless of the server or storage infrastructure it launches from, including systems from NetApp rivals EMC, HP and HDS.
NetApp said customers with production storage from a server other than NetApp can replicate data to a NetApp system and use its FlexClone technology to creates multiple clones of data without additional storage devices.
Topio’s TDPS will also allow users to consolidate all of their disaster recovery data onto a NetApp platform and use this copy for testing and reporting.
Jay Kidd, senior vice president and general manager of the emerging products group at NetApp, said in a statement that the average business creates and stores anywhere between 10 and 20 copies of its data, including testing and application development data, which can increase the amount of storage consumed by 10 to 20 times.
Topio’s TDPS will allow enterprises using legacy storage systems to create working data copies in seconds while decreasing storage requirements to reduce costs, Kidd said.
The acquisition is expected to close in December. Santa Clara, Calif.,-based Topio will become a new business unit in NetApp, and its research and development team will continue to operate in Haifa, Israel.
Corporations are demanding data protection software to help save their data in the case of major outages, or natural disasters.
The rush to such safeguards has been facilitated by the rise of compliance regulations requiring that certain types of information is saved.
Accordingly, large storage providers have been stepping up to supply the demand, showing good faith to customers by opening their wallets for smaller startups. After all, it’s quicker to buy than build.
NetApp’s bid is just the latest of several in the data protection space.
EMC last week bought
Avamar Technologies and acquired
long-distance replication specialist Kashya Technologies in May.
In July, CA agreed to buy
continuous data protection provider XOsoft.
NetApp Buys More Remote Data Assets
