Hifn Scoops Up Siafu

Security firm Hifn is acquiring storage startup Siafu Software, furthering the marriage between data storage and security.

The merger combines Hifn’s network security and data compression technology with Siafu’s encrypted iSCSI appliances, which already use Hifn chips.

“This acquisition dovetails precisely with the direction this industry is heading,” said Benjamin Woo, IDC’s research vice president for enterprise storage systems.

“The combination of Hifn and Siafu will enable users across multiple segments to achieve enterprise-class data protection effectively and efficiently,” said Woo. “What the Hifn/Siafu deal presents is a use case that enables not only large corporations, but even smaller businesses, to build data protection infrastructures that are readily accessible, available and equally important, affordable. Hifn/Siafu is in a position to develop and produce solutions that allow organizations of all types and sizes to compress, encrypt and reduce data and replicate it as well.”

The combined products will help small and mid-sized enterprises protect and reduce data while keeping more data online and accessible, said Hifn CTO Russell Dietz. The company will also be a play on “green” storage, helping customers squeeze “the most storage into the smallest space,” he said.

Hifn’s technology is also used in virtual tape libraries (VTL) and other storage solutions from the likes of FalconStor, EMC, Network Appliance and IBM, and its compression technology has been used in 100 million data tapes, said Dietz.

“This acquisition extends Hifn’s strategy of vertically integrating its data protection solutions to fill the gap in the convergence of storage, security and networking infrastructure,” stated Hifn CEO Albert Sisto. “The combination of Siafu Software’s storage software expertise with our own security and data protection footprint effectively makes us one of the best positioned companies in the world to address this growing market. In addition, Siafu Software’s products give us another revenue-generating opportunity while simultaneously enabling us to more effectively meet our OEM customers’ demands.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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