February 12, 2013, 1:45 PM — VMware is rounding out its new "software-defined data center" strategy with the acquisition of virtual storage company Virsto Software.
"We believe that by extending the benefits of virtualization to every domain of the datacenter - compute, network, storage - we can help our customers achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency and agility," John Gilmartin VMware vice president, storage and availability, writes in a blog post announcing the acquisition Monday. Terms of the deal were not immediately available, but it is expected to close in the first half of this year.
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VMware already holds a market-leading position in compute virtualization, although other companies -- particularly Microsoft, Red Hat and Citrix -- are aiming for their share of the hypervisor market. VMware made a big, $1.2 billion acquisition of Nicira last year as its stake in the virtual networking market. Now, with the acquisition of Virsto, the company is solidifying its virtual storage capabilities.
"Virsto has developed a VM-centric storage management model that accelerates I/O performance for any block-based storage system while providing efficient data services like VM snapshots and clones," Gilmartin explains. VMware plans to continue to offer Virsto's virtual appliance as a stand-alone product as well as integrate it into VMware's stack, Gilmartin says.
