EMC Buys Mainframe VTL Maker Bus-Tech

EMC today announced that it has acquired privately held, Bedford, Mass.-based Bus-Tech, Inc., a maker of virtual tape library (VTL) technology for mainframe environments. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed

Bus-Tech’s mainframe virtual tape library controllers use open systems disk storage to store and retrieve mainframe tape data. As a long time member of EMC’s (NYSE: EMC) Select Partner Program, Bus-Tech’s products have been used to connect EMC’s backup offerings to the mainframe for batch processing, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and data archiving applications.

A lot of the technical integration work between EMC and Bus-Tech’s respective products has already been done as Bus-Tech has been an EMC OEM partner since March of 2008. The most recent EMC-Bus-Tech collaboration resulted in a Deduplication Storage Expansion option for the EMC DLm960 Disk Library for Mainframe, which is based on EMC Data Domain DD880 deduplication storage system.

Bus-Tech’s technology also works with/is available for a range of EMC’s data protection products, including the Centera content addressed storage (CAS) system, Clariion, and Celerra NAS systems.

Bus-Tech’s biggest enterprise VTL, the Mainframe Data Library (MDL) MDL-6000, offers more than 1.5GBps performance and scales from 6 FICON channels and 768 tape devices to 12 FICON and 1,536 tape devices. The MDL-6000 includes a minimum of 3 redundant, independently operating emulation nodes (6 max); 2 redundant Access Control Point (ACPs); and the ability to attach large-scale storage arrays.

As a result of the acquisition, Bus-Tech is now part of EMC’s Backup Recovery Systems division, which is focused on disk-based backup and recovery.

EMC has acquired Bus-Tech with an eye toward the mainframe tape storage and media market, which IDC estimates will generate about $2.5 billion in revenue between now and 2014.

According to EMC, the acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on GAAP and non-GAAP EPS for the full 2010 fiscal year.

Follow Enterprise Storage Forum on Twitter.

Kevin Komiega
Kevin Komiega
Kevin Komiega is an Enterprise Storage Forum contributor.
Get the Free Newsletter!
Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends & analysis
This email address is invalid.
Get the Free Newsletter!
Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends & analysis
This email address is invalid.

Latest Articles

Cloud Storage Pricing in 2023: Everything You Need to Know

Cloud storage pricing is complex. Learn the basics of cloud storage pricing and how to find the best deal for your business.

Flash vs. SSD Storage: Is there a Difference?

Many people use the terms “flash” and “SSD” interchangeably when discussing solid state drives (SSDs)—even experts. While the two technologies are very closely related,...

8 Best Enterprise NAS Devices for 2023

Discover the best enterprise NAS devices for 2023. Learn about the features and benefits of the top NAS devices for businesses and organizations.