Oracle acquires storage specialist Pillar Data Systems

Oracle has announced an agreement to acquire Pillar Data Systems, a storage firm owned in part by Larry Ellison, which specialises in the development of SAN storage appliances.

The firm is majority owned by Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison, a fact the company noted in pointing out that the negotiations on the deal were conducted by Oracle's board of directors.

The acquisition is one of several Oracle has made as it moves to expand its operations in the IT hardware space, a campaign highlighted by the 2009 acquisition of Sun Microsystem and the subsequent integration of its products.

Oracle systems executive vice president Jim Fowler said the Pillar acquisition will be part of a larger effort to extend its storage operations.

"The combination of Oracle and Pillar's products are expected to help Oracle deliver to customers a complete line of storage products that runs Oracle software faster and more efficiently," he said

"Customers can optimise the value of their Oracle applications, database, middleware and operating system software by running on Oracle's storage solutions."

As Canalys vice president and principal analyst Chris Jones noted, the deal also comes at a time when Oracle is facing a looming legal battle with search giant Google.

"The acquisition of Pilar Data Systems has been long-awaited and joins the long list of acquisitions Oracle has made in recent years," Jones told V3.co.uk.

"The announcement is over-shadowed however by its patent infringement claim against Google in mobile."