Plasmon Pads Archiving Portfolio

Data archiving specialist Plasmon has acquired Raidtec for about $6 million in cash to strengthen its storage networking portfolio.

Cambridge, U.K.-based Plasmon makes optical drives, media, and libraries for storing data as alternatives to magneto optical (MO) DVD storage and tape- or disk-based backup systems.

The company’s sweet spot is selling blue laser-based optical drives and media to government agencies and to healthcare organizations that prefer to use optical storage to record medical images such as X-rays.

Raidtec, based in Cork, Ireland, makes storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) hardware based on Fibre Channel , SCSI , and Serial ATA technologies.

Buying Raidtec will help Plasmon, which embarked on its optical strategy last November, to build out its product stack for an integrated network-attached archive solution, according to Plasmon CEO Nigel Street.

“Over the last 15 months we have been engaged with Raidtec to build a next-generation product that bundles their storage networking and RAID technologies with Plasmon libraries,” Street said in a statement. “Acquiring Raidtec is the next logical step in our relationship.”

Analysts approve of the move. IDC Group Vice President for Storage Hardware John MaCarthur said in a statement that the NAS and RAID technology from Raidtec complements Plasmon’s optical and automation technology.

Enterprise Storage Group Analyst Peter Gerr says the buy will give Plasmon new channels to sell through — Raidtec products are sold in 45 countries — and will help Plasmon fill more of an organization’s information life cycle (ILM) and archiving requirements while expanding its presence in important markets like healthcare.

On the strength of the purchase, Plasmon reports it has already signed contracts with major medical imaging customers to supply archival storage products this year.

Plasmon will continue to market and support existing Raidtec products, and will introduce new products currently under development. Additionally, Raidtec products will continue to be sold through existing channels under the Raidtec brand.

Story courtesy of Internet News.

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