Microsoft acquires Avere Systems
Microsoft recently announced it has agreed to purchase data storage startup Avere Systems for an undisclosed amount. The move could help Microsoft’s Azure bolster revenue by targeting customers who want to take advantage of the cloud but are not ready to abandon their legacy infrastructure.
Founded in 2008, Avere Systems provides storage capacity hardware for data centers. The company’s file system and caching technologies are intended to speed access to compute and storage in hybrid environments. The enterprise’s clientele include the technology, finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and telecomm sector in addition to data-intensive organizations like healthcare research, higher education research and government agencies, according to the company.
“By bringing together Avere’s storage expertise with the power of Microsoft’s cloud, customers will benefit from industry-leading innovations that enable the largest, most complex high-performance workloads to run in Microsoft Azure,” wrote Corporate VP at Microsoft Azure Jason Zander in a company blog post. “We are excited to welcome Avere to Microsoft, and look forward to the impact their technology and the team will have on Azure and the customer experience.”
Microsoft has been more eager to embrace hybrid cloud services in comparison to rivals like Amazon and Google. The technology provides a combination of conventional infrastructure, private cloud and public cloud, enabling users to move workloads across multiple environments. Microsoft currently provides Azure Stack private cloud alongside Azure public cloud, in addition to servers and software for data centers.
Avere originally announced plans to bring its Virtual FXT Edge filers to Microsoft Azure in November 2015. It is unsure to what extent the acquisition will impact Avere customers as the company is absorbed by Microsoft. In a separate company blog post, Avere CEO Ron Bianchini noted the company will be joining Microsoft to further enable enterprise workloads to run in the datacenter, cloud and hybrid cloud environments.
“Over the years, Microsoft has made significant investments to provide its customers with the most flexible, secure and scalable storage solutions in the marketplace and has made Azure the natural home for enterprise applications,” he wrote. “This shared focus on large enterprise applications makes Microsoft a great fit for Avere.”
