EMC acquires XtremIO; flash storage in the datacenter
The flash parade in the datacenter continues.
EMC announced this morning that it has acquired XtremIO, the Israeli flash storage architecture firm, for an undisclosed amount.
For the storage giant, the future in enterprise is flash -- and XtremIO's storage architecture will help it keep pushing for greater speed and performance (for lower cost) as companies increasingly deploy physical and virtualized cloud environments.
EMC first entered the flash storage market in 2008 when it integrated it into its enterprise storage arrays; since then, the company has ramped up that business while developing systems and software to fill out its portfolio. Last year, EMC shipped more than 24 petabytes of Flash drive capacity to customers.
"We fully expect XtremIO technology, once introduced to market, to have a tremendous impact on our customer's ability to leverage the unique advantages of all-Flash storage," EMC Information Infrastructure Products COO Pat Gelsinger said.
A few interesting points about the deal:
- It's EMC's sixth (and largest) acquisition in Israel; it has an R&D center there with more than 700 employees.
- For the bean counters among you, VentureBeat's Matt Marshall estimated the price to be about $400 million. Not a bad exit for a startup that raised $25 million.
- Rival NetApp will probably return the volley with its own flash acquisition. Fusion-io, Violin or Kaminario, anyone?
The company says it will offer more detail about the sale at EMC World later this month. Related on ZDNet: