Hewlett-Packard said late on Feb. 26 it has agreed to acquire privately owned PolyServe, a Beaverton, Ore.-based provider of storage virtualization software for application and file-serving utilities.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP expects the transaction to close within 60 days.
PolyServe, which has 117 employees, will be integrated into the StorageWorks division in HP's Technology Solutions Group.
PolyServe software works with hardware such as HP ProLiant servers and HP's large portfolio of storage arrays to consolidate and virtualize NAS (nework-attached storage) in Linux or Windows environments. With this software, information from file or database servers can be consolidated into a single, shared pool of storage that is highly available and can scale to match business demands, an HP spokesperson said.
PolyServe is one of the few companies that offers database virtualization utilities for Microsoft's SQL Server, Oracle, SAP, MySQL, PosgreSQL and other high-end enterprise DBs.
Adds to HP's virtualization portfolio
Researcher IDC has predicted that the storage virtualization market will grow more than 14.4 percent through 2010, an HP spokesperson told eWEEK.
The acquisition will allow HP to extend its NAS technology to blades, the fastest-growing segment of the storage market. HP unveiled its first dedicated storage blade server last October.
PolyServe, founded in 1999, has more than 500 customers in a variety of industries, including finance, energy and technology, marketing vice-president Scott Campbell told eWEEK.
"Our two-year relationship with PolyServe has convinced us that its technology will help accelerate HP's growth and complement our HP StorageWorks, ProLiant and BladeSystem businesses," said Bob Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, StorageWorks Division, HP.
"The combination of PolyServe software and industry-standard HP hardware can help customers consolidate individual silos of storage, reduce complexity in their IT infrastructures, increase agility and lower IT costs."
PolyServe has a Microsoft development center in Bellevue, Wash. It also has sales and support offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, London, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
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