Contact: Dave Simpson
In a surprise move, Hitachi Data Systems has announced that it is acquiring Cofio Software, which specializes in data protection. In our last report on Cofio, we noted that the small startup differentiates itself from most other data-protection vendors in that it combines under a single code base a variety of functions, including backup and recovery, multitiered (source and target) data de-duplication, real-time replication, virtual and physical server backup, remote-office backup, bare-metal disaster recovery and continuous data protection.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The target had received about $4m in funding, and we estimate that it had roughly 140 customers.
Prior to reaching for Cofio, HDS had relied primarily on a reseller partnership with CommVault for its data-protection strategy. As such, the HDS-Cofio pairing is similar to Dell’s pickup of data-protection specialist AppAssure Software earlier this year. (Dell also had – and still does – a reseller relationship with CommVault.)
We see HDS’s acquisition of a data-protection player as a move to attain its own IP at a time when backup and recovery are becoming increasingly important as IT organizations virtualize more and more mission-critical applications. According to 451 Research, the market for data protection and high availability for virtualized environments will grow at a 43% CAGR through 2014.
HDS’s Cofio buy, along with Dell’s acquisitions of AppAssure and, soon, Quest Software, leaves only one major storage vendor without its own IP in data protection: NetApp.