LSI Annexes StoreAge

LSI Logic today made it official: It intends to bulk up its software portfolio by picking up storage virtualization startup StoreAge for $50 million. (See LSI Buys StoreAge and LSI Sniffs Out StoreAge.)

LSI executives didn't say much about the deal during its earnings report conference call, but CEO Abhi Talwalkar says he sees StoreAge software enhancing its Engenio storage systems sold through OEM deals with IBM, Sun, and other vendors. He expects the deal -- reported by Byte and Switch last week -- to close by the end of the year.

StoreAge software is used primarily for storage virtualization, but it also has data protection features such as snapshots, mirroring, and replication that are becoming integral pieces of SAN systems.

"StoreAge's advanced copy data services are a key part of our strategy to develop and continue offering key software building blocks," Talwalkar said on the call.

StoreAge is among a handful of vendors that have developed software to virtualize block storage, either on intelligent switches or appliances. (See Virtualization Buyers Keep Exit Open and A Baby Step for Storage Virtualization.) StoreAge software is available on the QLogic SANBox 8200 intelligent switch, and the company is working to port its software to Cisco MDS switches. StoreAge software also works on out-of-band appliances sold mostly through resellers.The intelligent switch market has been slow to develop despite EMC's Invista launch in mid-2005. Incipient recently rolled out software that works on Cisco MDS intelligent switches. Like EMC and Incipient, StoreAge uses a split-path architecture, which separates the control and data information and assigns virtualization applications to multiple paths. Others, such as IBM's SAN Volume Controller (SVC) and FalconStor software, run on appliances that sit in the data path.

Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch