Oracle to Acquire Start-Up GreenBytes

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Sun Microsystems was at the origin of an innovative 128-bit file system and logical volume manager, ZFS (Zettabyte File System), implemented as open-source software with a lot of functionalities (data integrity, RAID, snapshot, de-dupe, encryption, etc.). Development started in 2001 and     announcement was made in 2014.

Several companies embraced ZFS like Aberdeen, AC&NC, Coraid, Datto, DNUK, Infortrend, ONstor, Winchester Systems for their platform, and added improvements, like Nexenta (and its numerous partners), iXsystems, and ... GreenBytes.

So it's funny to see Oracle putting money - but the amount was not disclosed - on a company to get better functionalities around its own ZFS.

GreenBytes, based in Providence, RI, and founded in 2007 by current CEO Bob Petrocelli replacing Steve O'Donnell in 2012, got a total of $29 million in financial funding.

In July 2012, it acquired the ZEVO ZFS technology for Mac, developed by Don Brady, former Apple engineer.

First the start-up focused on storage arrays based on ZFS and then released in 2012 an IO-Offload desktop virtualization storage optimization software regularly updated, for VMware and Citrix. It captures the I/O intense data stream processed it in a more effective and efficient manner.
 
GreenBytes was recently certified by Oracle's rival Dell as technology partner.

Note the name of Randall Chalfant at GreenBytes' advisory board, who was the CTO at Sun Microsystems and StorageTek.

To get a better understanding of this acquisition, we got by email the comment of somebody who knows quite well te subject as he is on the advisory board of Greenbytes and MD of market research firm Neuralytix:" Oracle benefits from the capacity efficiency of Greenbytes for both VirtualBox and VMware environment. Oracle already has the flash hardware assets, and the technology that they acquired from Greenbytes will enhance and complete their high performance storage solutions."

 
Acquisitions of storage companies
by StorageTek (acquired by Sun),  Sun (acquired by Oracle), and Oracle: