NetApp to acquire object storage firm Bycast

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Storage and data management solutions provider NetApp announced on Wednesday that it will acquire Bycast, a privately held storage software maker headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in an all-cash transaction.

Bycast develops object-based storage software designed to manage petabyte-scale, globally distributed repositories of images, video, and records for enterprises and service providers.

Founded more than 10 years ago, Bycast has helped more than 250 customers worldwide improve their operational efficiency and reduce the administrative burden of managing massive quantities of data across multiple geographies, said a press release.

Bycast extends NetApp’s leadership position in unified storage by adding an object-based storage software offering, the release added. Object-based storage is a new and emerging approach to storing and accessing data based on object names and rich metadata that describes the content in greater detail, which simplifies the task of large-scale object storage while improving the ability to quickly search and locate data objects.

“Bycast extends our unified storage strategy and enhances our solution for shared storage infrastructure by adding new capabilities for global data access and mobility,” said Manish Goel, executive vice president, Product Operations, NetApp.

According to him the addition of Bycast’s products enables NetApp to offer its enterprise customers and service provider partners a complementary solution that enables them to efficiently build and manage a very large-scale global repository of data central to many IT-as-a-service offerings.

“We are excited and look forward to joining the NetApp team,” said Moe Kermani, CEO of Bycast. “We share a complementary vision and a common dedication to excellence. Together we will offer customers the best-in-class content repository solutions that further their drive toward a unified storage infrastructure.”

The acquisition is expected to close in May 2010, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Other details of the deal were not revealed by the companies.