June 18, 2009 – According to the most recent Storage Study from independent research firm TheInfoPro (TIP), storage resource management (SRM) tools are in the midst of a comeback as enterprises attempt to boost utilization in tough economic times.
TheInfoPro's most recent study, which is based on data gathered from interviews with 250 IT pros at Fortune 1000 and medium-sized enterprise organizations, revealed that managing storage growth, capacity forecasting and storage reporting, and managing costs are the "top pain points" facing end users.
Enter: SRM.
A few tidbits from a press release on TIP's latest Storage Management Technology Heat Index – a barometer of the user needs and planned spending:
• Top technologies on the F1000 Storage Management Technology Heat Index include capacity planning and forecasting, storage performance monitoring and storage resource management – with capacity planning and forecasting jumping nine spots from number 11 six months ago to the number one technology on the index.
• Top technologies on the MSE Storage Management Technology Heat Index include capacity planning and forecasting, information lifecycle management, disk-to-disk and email archiving.
• Top Technologies on the European Storage Management Technology Heat Index include storage resource management, email archiving and thin provisioning.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tucci appeals to Data Domain's rank and file
June 9, 2009 -- The acquisition agreement between Data Domain and NetApp precludes EMC from communicating with Data Domain directly, but no one says EMC can't state its case to the public or to Data Domain's employees.
EMC chairman, president and CEO Joe Tucci issued an open letter to Data Domain's personnel this morning in which he praises their achievements, congratulates them for their successes and highlights the impact of their data deduplication technologies are having in data centers across the globe.
He even writes, "In many ways, you remind us of EMC."
Tucci also promises Data Domain's employees an "exciting future" if they should become part of the "EMC family."
All flattery and promises aside, Tucci continues to make the financial argument that EMC's $30 per share all-cash tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding stock of Data Domain is the better deal than NetApp's part-stock, part-cash offer.
It appears that NetApp will win the day and acquire Data Domain, but its sure is fun to watch the day-to-day developments.
The full text of Tucci's open letter to the employees of Data Domain can be found on EMC's website.
EMC chairman, president and CEO Joe Tucci issued an open letter to Data Domain's personnel this morning in which he praises their achievements, congratulates them for their successes and highlights the impact of their data deduplication technologies are having in data centers across the globe.
He even writes, "In many ways, you remind us of EMC."
Tucci also promises Data Domain's employees an "exciting future" if they should become part of the "EMC family."
All flattery and promises aside, Tucci continues to make the financial argument that EMC's $30 per share all-cash tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding stock of Data Domain is the better deal than NetApp's part-stock, part-cash offer.
It appears that NetApp will win the day and acquire Data Domain, but its sure is fun to watch the day-to-day developments.
The full text of Tucci's open letter to the employees of Data Domain can be found on EMC's website.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Update: Data Domain sides with NetApp
June 4, 2009 -- Another day, another development in the EMC-Data Domain-NetApp saga. Less than 12 hours after NetApp publicly raised its offer to buy Data Domain, the two companies have officially entered into a revised acquisition agreement.
The volleying has been worthy of a match at Roland Garros. NetApp responded to EMC's surprise bid for Data Domain yesterday morning by raising its offer. The price seems to have satisfied Data Domain, for now.
Late yesterday, the pair issued a joint press release stating that they have entered into a revised acquisition agreement under which NetApp will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Data Domain common stock for $30 per share in cash and stock in a transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion, net of Data Domain's cash.
EMC is standing pat. The company issued a statement of its own on Wednesday, in which Joe Tucci, EMC chairman, president and CEO, said, "EMC's all-cash tender offer remains superior to NetApp's proposed part-stock merger transaction. We are proceeding with our superior cash tender offer, which is not subject to any financing or due diligence contingency. We do not believe that the Data Domain stockholders will approve the merger transaction with NetApp."
Tucci added, "EMC urges the Board of Directors of Data Domain to not take any actions that would further impede a transaction that is a superior alternative for Data Domain's shareholders."
Whether EMC counters the counter offer remains to be seen.
The volleying has been worthy of a match at Roland Garros. NetApp responded to EMC's surprise bid for Data Domain yesterday morning by raising its offer. The price seems to have satisfied Data Domain, for now.
Late yesterday, the pair issued a joint press release stating that they have entered into a revised acquisition agreement under which NetApp will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Data Domain common stock for $30 per share in cash and stock in a transaction valued at approximately $1.9 billion, net of Data Domain's cash.
EMC is standing pat. The company issued a statement of its own on Wednesday, in which Joe Tucci, EMC chairman, president and CEO, said, "EMC's all-cash tender offer remains superior to NetApp's proposed part-stock merger transaction. We are proceeding with our superior cash tender offer, which is not subject to any financing or due diligence contingency. We do not believe that the Data Domain stockholders will approve the merger transaction with NetApp."
Tucci added, "EMC urges the Board of Directors of Data Domain to not take any actions that would further impede a transaction that is a superior alternative for Data Domain's shareholders."
Whether EMC counters the counter offer remains to be seen.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
NetApp responds to EMC's bid for Data Domain
June 3, 2009 -- The bidding war for Data Domain has begun. NetApp has responded to EMC's surprise offer to buy the company by upping its offer to $1.9 billion and claiming that a combined NetApp-Data Domain has a bigger upside for both companies.
NetApp issued a revised offer this morning, raising the acquisition price to approximately $1.9 billion versus EMC's $1.8 billion offer earlier this week.
In a press release, NetApp's chairman and CEO, Dan Warmenhoven, said his company's "strategic rationale remains the same" and "the complementary nature of the Data Domain and NetApp product lines will result in higher aggregate growth compared to the redundancies that would result with the EMC product line."
Warmenhoven added, "The cultural compatibility between Data Domain and NetApp will maximize the potential for continued innovation from a creative and motivated employee base. This will not only create a meaningful choice for our customers but also lead to a complementary combination with no obstacles to an expeditious close of the acquisition. Therefore, we are as committed to this partnership now as we were when we first announced our intent to acquire Data Domain."
Mum's the word over at Data Domain as they company has yet to comment on the EMC-NetApp tug of war. The industry pundits, however, are keeping a close eye on the back and forth.
Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Lauren Whitehouse wonders whether EMC is just playing the spoiler, especially given its wealth of data deduplication technologies and OEM deals.
"I am having a hard time understanding why EMC wants the Data Domain technology. EMC has deduplication solutions through the Avamar product and its partnership with Quantum. I'm not sure what opportunities there are for technology integration with Avamar and EMC recently made a sizeable investment in Quantum," said Whitehouse. "The company has also promoted the benefits of the being able to replicate between Dell, EMC and Quantum solutions. What statement is EMC making about its investments in Avamar and Quantum by bidding for Data Domain?"
She continued, "Who can better leverage and integrate the Data Domain technology? EMC definitely has a better track record of doing acquisitions and leveraging technology purchases. Without really knowing the motivation for either company's bid, it's hard to judge who will leverage the technology better. It's just not obvious what the intentions are for either bidder. What a rollercoaster ride this has been."
David Vellante, co-founder and contributor to The Wikibon Project, believes EMC may have the edge.
"EMC plays for keeps. It doesn't mess around when it comes to competing. I think if EMC really wants Data Domain it will outbid NetApp for sure," he said.
So what does EMC's unsolicited bid for Data Domain say to the industry? Vellante sees it as a defensive move by EMC.
"It says to me that EMC recognizes it can't grow its core storage business organically and needs to acquire growth," Vellante said. "It says EMC is making a defensive move, albeit an aggressive one, to stop Data Domain from getting in NetApp's hands."
He also believes smaller vendors are fast becoming hot commodities.
"The market is continuing to consolidate and companies like CommVault, FalconStor, Sepaton and even 3PAR and Compellent are worth more today than they were yesterday," Vellante said.
NetApp issued a revised offer this morning, raising the acquisition price to approximately $1.9 billion versus EMC's $1.8 billion offer earlier this week.
In a press release, NetApp's chairman and CEO, Dan Warmenhoven, said his company's "strategic rationale remains the same" and "the complementary nature of the Data Domain and NetApp product lines will result in higher aggregate growth compared to the redundancies that would result with the EMC product line."
Warmenhoven added, "The cultural compatibility between Data Domain and NetApp will maximize the potential for continued innovation from a creative and motivated employee base. This will not only create a meaningful choice for our customers but also lead to a complementary combination with no obstacles to an expeditious close of the acquisition. Therefore, we are as committed to this partnership now as we were when we first announced our intent to acquire Data Domain."
Mum's the word over at Data Domain as they company has yet to comment on the EMC-NetApp tug of war. The industry pundits, however, are keeping a close eye on the back and forth.
Enterprise Strategy Group analyst Lauren Whitehouse wonders whether EMC is just playing the spoiler, especially given its wealth of data deduplication technologies and OEM deals.
"I am having a hard time understanding why EMC wants the Data Domain technology. EMC has deduplication solutions through the Avamar product and its partnership with Quantum. I'm not sure what opportunities there are for technology integration with Avamar and EMC recently made a sizeable investment in Quantum," said Whitehouse. "The company has also promoted the benefits of the being able to replicate between Dell, EMC and Quantum solutions. What statement is EMC making about its investments in Avamar and Quantum by bidding for Data Domain?"
She continued, "Who can better leverage and integrate the Data Domain technology? EMC definitely has a better track record of doing acquisitions and leveraging technology purchases. Without really knowing the motivation for either company's bid, it's hard to judge who will leverage the technology better. It's just not obvious what the intentions are for either bidder. What a rollercoaster ride this has been."
David Vellante, co-founder and contributor to The Wikibon Project, believes EMC may have the edge.
"EMC plays for keeps. It doesn't mess around when it comes to competing. I think if EMC really wants Data Domain it will outbid NetApp for sure," he said.
So what does EMC's unsolicited bid for Data Domain say to the industry? Vellante sees it as a defensive move by EMC.
"It says to me that EMC recognizes it can't grow its core storage business organically and needs to acquire growth," Vellante said. "It says EMC is making a defensive move, albeit an aggressive one, to stop Data Domain from getting in NetApp's hands."
He also believes smaller vendors are fast becoming hot commodities.
"The market is continuing to consolidate and companies like CommVault, FalconStor, Sepaton and even 3PAR and Compellent are worth more today than they were yesterday," Vellante said.
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