EMC to buy virtualization specialist Rainfinity

EMC Corp. is to acquire Rainfinity Inc., a network file virtualization software vendor, the storage giant announced Wednesday. The move is part of EMC's ongoing strategy to reposition itself as an information infrastructure company as laid out by the company's executives earlier this month at the firm's annual analyst day in New York. The move also fleshes out EMC's storage virtualization product portfolio.

The deal is valued under US$100 million and will likely close by the end of this month, according to an EMC release. Privately held Rainfinity is based in San Jose, California, and has 60 employees. The company's RainStorage software virtualizes Windows, Unix and Linux file systems across heterogenous network attached storage systems and file servers, making the disparate devices appear to be a single unit. The technology both simplifies management and makes it easier for users to carry out data migration.

EMC already has a product for SAN (storage area network) virtualization, known as Invista, which debuted earlier this year. However, EMC President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Tucci made it clear at the analyst day on Aug. 4 that he doesn't expect the storage virtualization market to take off until late 2006 at the earliest.

IDG News Service

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