EMC Acquires OEM Partner Bus-Tech

EMC Corporation has acquired Bedford, Massachusetts-based Bus-Tech, Inc.

Bus-Tech is a privately-held provider of VTL (Virtual Tape Library) solutions that utilize open systems disk storage to store and retrieve mainframe tape data. Bus-Tech products enhance EMC solutions for mainframe batch processing, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and data archiving applications. Bus-Tech now becomes part of tEMC Backup Recovery Systems division, which delivers disk-based backup and recovery solutions. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP and non-GAAP EPS for the full 2010 fiscal year.

The opportunity for mainframe users to eliminate tape infrastructure and embrace next-generation disk-based backup solutions is being driven by mainframe virtual tape and data deduplication technologies. Bus-Tech and EMC are technology and market leaders in these respective categories. IDC estimates mainframe tape storage and media revenues will be $2.5 billion between 2010 and 2014, creating a significant market opportunity for disk-based storage in mainframe tape environments. The combination of EMC disk library and EMC deduplication storage systems with Bus-Tech mainframe virtual tape library controllers gives mainframe users a simple, cost-effective way to eliminate complex and aging tape-based systems. This accelerates their batch, backup and disaster recovery processes while providing automation and reliability levels that tape-based systems simply cannot deliver.

Frank Slootman, President of EMC’s Backup Recovery Systems division, said: "Mainframe users are not immune to the challenges with tape when it comes to backup and recovery. In a few short years, the application of data deduplication and disk-based storage has literally transformed the backup market. The addition of Bus-Tech will enable us to deliver a suite of next-generation mainframe backup products that are highly differentiated in terms of performance, integration and supportability."

Bus-Tech has been a member of the EMC Select partner program since 2004, and has been an EMC OEM partner since March of 2008. Bus-Tech most recently collaborated with EMC in July of 2010 to help deliver the Deduplication Storage Expansion option for the EMC DLm960 Disk Library for Mainframe, which was based on the EMC Data Domain DD880 deduplication storage system. The pairing of Bus-Tech mainframe connectivity and Data Domain deduplication storage systems creates a performance advantage for mainframe users that is based on field-proven products and technologies.

Al Brandt, President of Bus-Tech, said: "This acquisition begins a new and very exciting chapter for Bus-Tech and its employees. EMC’s Backup Recovery Systems division has sustained a market trajectory to which we will soon be contributing. Bus-Tech’s solutions span the full range of mainframe customer types, so the potential associated with this combination is significant. We are looking forward to a very productive future as members of the EMC family."

Comments

Bus-Tech is not a start-up at all. It was founded in 1987 - the year of Black Monday when the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 22.6% of its total value on October 19 -, as a developer of mainframe channel emulation technology. The company's initial product was a single board computer which connected Ethernet networks to mainframe channels. It provides Ficon and Escon market with VTLs to replace tapes since 2002.

EMC never was a big fan of magnetic tapes and works with Quantum when their customers need tape automation products. But the storage giant had relationship with Bus-Tech since 2004 when its Mainframe Appliance for Storage were available through EMC Select Program and customers can currently purchase VTLs for Centera, CLARiiON or Celerra directly from EMC.

Following the deal, EMC could lose two other partners of Bus-Tech: Compellent and HDS.

This acquisition is a perfect move for EMC,
for two reasons:

First, the price, not revealed, is probably low, fewer than $10 million, as EMC said that "the acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP and non-GAAP EPS for the full 2010 fiscal year."

Secondly, EMC will now be able to compete more actively in the disk and tape market for mainframes where there are excellent margins and few competitors, two big ones (IBM and Oracle/StorageTek) and smaller ones (Luminex, Fujitsu and ... Bus-Tech), notably against Big Blue with its ProtecTIER de-dupe that it got following the acquisition of Diligent. Now EMC will own the Disk Library for Mainframe or DLm - currently at its catalog - that can emulate up to 1,536 tape drives for up to 1.2PB and offers de-dupe in option with Data Domain DD880, a storage system from its former OEM and now acquired company Bus-Tech (MDL-6000).