eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
To improve its data trafficking functions, up-and-coming storage management maker FalconStor Software Inc. on Tuesday bought IP Metrics Software Inc. for $2.5 million.
“Its meant to extend our high availability offerings, from storage to the IP connection. We have a very broad roadmap,” said ReiJane Huai, chairman and CEO of FalconStor, whose main suite is called IPStor.
Using the 10-employee, Euless, Texas-based IP Metrics technology, FalconStor, of Melville, N.Y., will build new fault-tolerance options into its current IPStor server and DynaPath application server, Huai said. FalconStor will also build Unix versions of the IP Metrics technology, which is currently for Windows and Linux, he said.
The new server versions, shipping next month, will be called Fault Tolerant IP and DynaPath IP, respectively, and will be announced Thursday, along with a desktop version called NIC Express, said sources close to FalconStor, which a spokeswoman said has 300 customers.
Mike Karp, an industry analyst with Enterprise Management Associates Inc., likes the deal.
“This gives FalconStor an ability to look at the data traffic at a point where it didnt have before,” said Karp, in Westborough, Mass. “If theyre able to manage both storage and a good piece of the data traffic, thats a differentiator.”
IP Metrics technology “does all the fundamental things that youd be looking for, not just SNMP,” but things such as intelligent traffic routing, he said. “Thank goodness FalconStor is finally getting away from being known as a virtualization company.”