XIV, its technologies and employees, will become part of the IBM System Storage business unit of the IBM Systems and Technology Group. IBM has confirmed the acquisition of Israeli grid storage start-up XIV Information Systems for an undisclosed sum, but estimates are in the range of $300 to $350 million. XIV declines to comment on the deal, but they might have hit the jackpot, having raised only $3 million in capital to date from XIV’s chairman Moshe Yanai, previously the man who called the shots at EMC, and other private investors.
XIV claims to have revolutionized corporate storage solutions by creating Nextra, the world’s first “single-architecture” system, bringing outstanding results while eliminating the need to split storage solutions between tiers and architectures. Indeed, its clear why IBM sought XIV’s technology. Think Amazon S3 or E2 – the New York Times recently chose S3 for its data storage and that means one thing – big bucks. IBM wants to attract web 2.0 companies, digital archives and digital media clients by offering them better storage capacities for a lower price.
Andrew Monshaw, a GM at IBM system storage commented:
“The ability for almost anyone to create digital content at any time has accelerated the need for a whole new way of applying infrastructure solutions to the new world of digital information.”
According to Globes, XIV has has developed a patented system that replaces conventional storage technologies through the use of grid technology and much less expensive hardware than the traditional Tier 1 storage hardware, which is used to store the most critical information.
In an interview with David Greenfield last year, XIV’s CEO Ofir Zohar stated that XIV’s technology reduces the cost of Tier 1 storage by 57%, without sacrificing on advanced replication and recovery features. The company holds six patents on the technology. XIV’s leading product, the Nextra infrastructure has been in production for more than two years, and according to XIV’s statement, more than four petabytes of capacity being used by customers today.
I'm a former general partner at google ventures, head of Google for Entrepreneurs in Europe and founding head of Campus London, Google's first physical hub for startups.
I'm also the founder of Techbikers, a non-profit bringing together the startup ecosystem on cycling challenges in support of Room to Read. Since inception in 2012 we've built 11 schools and 50 libraries in the developing world.
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