Brocade moved further outside its core Fibre Channel business late Monday with the acquisition of iSCSI acceleration startup Silverback Systems.
“We are committed to providing customers a broad range and choice of high-performance networked storage solutions,” stated Brocade CTO Dan Crain. “Silverback’s technology and expertise in iSCSI environments will help us to deliver a new set of cost-effective products that broaden the Brocade product portfolio and provide even more options and capabilities to our customers.”
Brocade did not reveal the price of the cash acquisition, which it described as “not material.” Silverback has raised more than $50 million in funding.
“Brocade is obtaining excellent engineering and technology expertise in an area where the company will continue to grow and expand its business,” said Arun Taneja, founder and consulting analyst at the Taneja Group. “As data centers expand to include emerging technologies such as 10GbE and high-performance IP connectivity, Brocade is demonstrating its commitment to continue to provide customers with a broad range and choice of high-performance networked storage solutions.”
Brocade has been in an acquisitive mood in the last year, moving to acquire Fibre Channel switch competitor McData and file virtualization startup NuView.
Brocade global public relations director Leslie Davis said the Silverback acquisition “aligns with the company’s strategy to continue to invest in innovative technologies and industry expertise that expands the choice of solutions we offer our customers. Brocade has been clear for several years now that IP-based solutions for networked storage such as iSCSI, FCIP and NAS are part of our vision for the next-generation data center.”
Davis said Brocade’s IP-based solutions “specifically address storage and data management use cases for the protected computing environment, and are not aimed in Ethernet areas that serve the client-side messaging network. Brocade today has the most comprehensive portfolio of IP-based solutions among SAN infrastructure vendors, and this acquisition is part of our strategy to expand and accelerate delivery of solutions for the SAN market.”
Davis was quick to note that Brocade is not abandoning its core business. “Fibre Channel is an important part of our business, and IP-based solutions complement our business strategy of growth and diversification,” said Davis.