Exciting news broke this morning in the storage world – EMC has made a $1.87 billion counterbid for Data Domain, against NetApp’s original $1.5 billion offer in late May. We will have some commentary on this soon, but meanwhile, it seems worthwhile to at least aggregate the opinions that are starting to churn out of the real-time blogosphere on the subject.
One very quick piece of analysis: If nothing else, we hope that people take from this news the immense importance that deduplication is starting to take on in the storage industry. It is slowly dawning on everyone that this is the best way to save on storage costs, both in the near-term and over the long haul. It serves to reign in both CapEx for storage and OpEx for power, cooling, people and other costs. In short, dedupe is hot!
As our lead blogger Carter George pointed out when the news of the NetApp bid went public, the acquisition would mean that, “…one vendor, NetApp, has the market leadership position in both dedupe for online with NetApp Dedupe and dedupe for backup with Data Domain.” He also raised the question how EMC and others would respond. Well, now we know!
First out of the gate with the instant analysis was Steve Duplessie.
Steve’s IT Rants – EMC Trying to Outbid Netapp on Data Domain. In this post, Mr. D. argues that EMC doesn’t need what Data Domain has, and that in essence it’s just a way to mess with its prime competitor. Later, Steve spelled out his perspective even more overtly with the following tweet: “new conspiracy theory – EMC trying to make Netapp spend more cash – evil but excellent if true.”
Chuck Hollis of EMC gives his perspective as an insider:
Chuck’s Blog – EMC Makes Surprise Play for Data Domain – In this, Chuck explains that this supports the EMC vision of deduplication everywhere. Beyond that, he doesn’t get into any detail as to where it will integrate or the fate of EMC’s similar products, such as Avamar. EMC’s Joe Tucci, in a conference call today, also declined to give specifics on the fate of that product line.
Stephen Foskett, Gestalt IT – EMC Takes on NetApp for Data Domain. Stephen argues quite compellingly that Data Domain might actually be a better fit for EMC than NetApp, because in the long-run it has a better technology than Quantum, which could still be cut loose.
As he puts it: “Their Quantum-based VTLs are expensive and enterprise-focused, while a new Data Domain-powered line might have broader appeal.”
Marc Farley, StorageRap – EMC versus Netapp for Data Domain – call notes
More than notes, this also includes his perspectives.
More to come. Meanwhile, the question remains – who will prevail in this bidding war?
Thanks for above information about data storage system,this news the immense importance for the people.