Quest Software Moves Deeper into Storage with BakBone Acquisition

Quest Software, which used to concentrate on producing software tools that made dealing with complicated Oracle database deployments bearable, continues to add to its catalog of cloud computing management products.

The Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based company Jan. 18 announced it has completed the acquisition of data protection software maker BakBone Software, headquartered in San Diego. The $55 million all-cash transaction originally was announced Nov. 9.

BakBone shareholders received 33 cents per common share -- the amount at which the stock closed on Jan. 18 -- and $1.29 per preferred share. Quest's stock closed at $27.94 on Jan. 18.

Quest has steadily been building up its intellectual property in cloud systems and storage management. In August 2010, Quest acquired private cloud management specialist Surgient. In July 2010, the company picked up Völcker Informatik AG, a privately held identity management solutions provider based in Germany.

Quest's product line already includes virtualization controls—the vOptimizer Pro and vFoglight management tools—from Vizioncore, an acquisition it did two-and-a-half years ago.

The acquisition of BakBone gives Quest new versatility to provide data protection across various types of physical, virtual and application-level environments, communications director Ken Montgomery told eWEEK. It also gives Quest features such as deduplication, backup and replication and other necessary IP to enable the company to compete in the cloud-enabled storage market.

BakBone's NetVault brand provides the features noted above plus disk-based and tape backup. Quest will market and sell the BakBone products, rebranded as Quest NetVault, as both a suite and individually available solutions, Montgomery said.

"The BakBone acquisition complements Quest Software's growing storage management portfolio, which includes products such as vRanger and LiteSpeed," said Lauren Whitehouse, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.

"BakBone's technology, such as deduplication, tape media management, and backup and replication support for physical systems will enhance Quest's solutions, providing Quest a feature 'leap frog' to be competitive in heterogeneous environments."