VMware will acquire cloud storage provider Virsto Software in an effort to increase its storage and desktop virtualization offerings.
Virtualization solutions provider VMware announced on Tuesday it will acquire cloud storage provider Virsto Software in an effort to increase its storage and desktop virtualization offerings.
This marks the second major acquisition for VMware in less than a year following VMware’s $1.2 billion acquisition of cloud networking software developer Nicira last July.
The press release did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.
As a top developer of storage hypervisor software, Virsto’s flagship product VM-centric storage hypervisor software is used by thousands of hosting providers and end users.
The acquisition also helps to reaffirm VMware’s lead in the enterprise market over its main competitor, Microsoft, whose Hyper-V product offers a less costly alternative to VMware’s flagship product.
Almost exactly a year ago, Virsto began offering Virsto for vSphere and Virsto for Hyper-V 2.0 products, in general availability.
“VMware is committed to continuing to deliver software innovations that bring significant efficiencies to our customers while simplifying infrastructure and IT,” said John Gilmartin, vice president of storage and availability at VMware. “We believe that the acquisition of Virsto will accelerate our development of storage technologies, allowing our customers to greatly improve the efficiency and performance of storage in virtual infrastructure.”
Virsto provides storage optimization technologies that improve storage performance and utilization in virtual and cloud environments.
When implemented within a VDI, Virsto can cut the cost of storage per desktop by as high as 70 percent, according to the press release.
The two companies share a similar approach to using virtualization technology to remove complexity and increase efficiencies, and ultimately providing customers with an affordable storage architecture.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013.
In December, VMware launched VMware vCenter Operations Management Suite 5.6 and VMware vFabric Application Director 5.0.
Talk back: Do you think this is a smart strategic move for VMware? Do you think that Virsto will be a good addition to VMware’s product portfolio? Let us know in the comments.
About Justin Lee
Justin Lee has been a staff analyst with theWHIR since 2004. He writes about a range of web hosting and IT-related issues facing the industry on the WHIR website, as well the print version of the WHIR magazine. Follow him on Twitter @Justin_theWHIR.
