EMC boosts storage offerings with Isilon purchase

EMC has signed a definitive agreement to acquire network attached storage (NAS) firm Isilon Systems for approximately $2.25bn (£1.4bn).

Isilon is seen as a leader in the fast-growing scale-out NAS segment, and EMC's Atmos and Isilon products will offer a highly scalable, low-cost storage infrastructure for managing 'Big Data', according to EMC.

'Big Data' describes the vast amount of information produced by industries such as media and entertainment as they use applications for online streaming, and for industries such as oil and gas and life sciences.

Isilon's NAS systems are designed to scale quickly and non-disruptively to up to 10PB in size, EMC said.

"The unmistakable waves of cloud computing and 'Big Data' are upon us. Customers are looking for new ways to store, protect, secure and add intelligence to the vast amounts of information they will accumulate over the next decade," said Joe Tucci, chairman and chief executive of EMC.

"EMC, in combination with Isilon, sits at the intersection of these trends with leading products, solutions and services to help customers get the most out of what cloud computing has to offer."

Isilon will enable EMC to accelerate its storage revenue growth and serve customers across a broader range of the storage systems market, added Pat Gelsinger, president and chief operating officer for EMC information infrastructure products.

"EMC will invest in all aspects of Isilon's business to accelerate growth and take advantage of the fast-growing market opportunity ahead," he said.

EMC expects the combined revenue of the storage offerings to reach a $1bn run-rate during the second half of 2012.

EMC shares jumped last month on rumours of a buyout led by Oracle.