Texas Memory Buys Virtualization Technology from Incipient

Texas Memory Systems has acquired virtualization and storage management technology that could make for some interesting products from the solid state storage systems company.

TMS acquired the technology from Incipient, a startup that raised $95 million and launched a storage virtualization platform that was five years in development. Incipient will apparently continue to service existing customers.

Taneja Group founder and consulting analyst Arun Taneja cited Incipient’s “lack of traction and frequently changing strategy” for the startup’s apparent demise.

“Others in that space have managed to do quite well,” said Taneja, citing DataCore, IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) SVC, Hitachi Data Systems’ V Series and FalconStor (NASDAQ: FALC).

Texas Memory Systems could use the technology to move into the storage virtualization market, or it could use it to migrate data from SSDs to disk drives, an approach that storage vendors such as Sun (NASDAQ: JAVA), Compellent (NYSE: CML) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) are working on to make sure that only the most critical or frequently accessed data sits on pricey SSDs.

TMS isn’t saying what it will do with Incipient’s data management patents and source code just yet, only that the technology “will allow Texas Memory Systems to further differentiate its industry-leading RamSan line of solid state storage solutions and to increase its advantage over the competition.”

“The patents and software provide Texas Memory Systems with a new set of tools for virtualization and storage management that complement our solid state storage systems,” TMS President Woody Hutsell said in a statement. “The newly-acquired technology will accelerate our development of new high-performance storage that meets the demanding and complex needs of our enterprise customers.”

TMS has not acquired any interest in Incipient, and both companies remain independent.

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