A purchase that makes sense.

Typcially – the news from Silly Con Valley storage companies makes little sense but this one seems to have some logic behind it. If HDS pulls it off, I think in a few years NetApp will see some serious competition.

Meanwhile, HDS is also said to be working through the due diligence process to acquire high-end network attached storage (NAS) supplier, BlueArc Inc. Neither company would confirm nor deny the rumor. A former BlueArc employee, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that there were discussions with HDS two to three years ago, but they didn’t go anywhere. “The company’s under new management now and it would be a logical move,” he said.

But what happened to the love NetApp and HDS used to share?
Hitachi Data Systems Corp. (HDS), Santa Clara, Calif., and Network Appliance Inc. (NetApp), Sunnyvale, Calif., have penned a plan to sell enterprise NAS systems. Under terms of the agreement, HDS will offer NetApp enterprise NAS gateway devices for Hitachi Freedom Storage arrays managed by HDS HiCommand Management Framework tools.

Oh yeah, that’s right , NetApp is now dancing with IBM.
Andy Monshaw, General Manager, IBM Storage Systems, states, “The IBM relationship with Network Appliance is a prime example of how two industry-leading companies, both of whom actively support open standards, can team to offer information on demand solutions.

No matter who they are dancing with today, Zerowait will support whichever legacy version of NetApp equipment you are left with for years to come.