NetApps in HDS pact

Companies put an end to recent speculation

Network Appliance and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) announced last week that they intend to work more closely under an OEM deal, bringing the convergence between SAN and NAS even closer.

The deal was hoped to put an end to speculation from the industry regarding the two firms.

"There have been lots of rumours and we wanted to dispel them as quickly as possible. We also wanted to let our customers and channel know what is coming," said Robert Bignell, senior director of enterprise products and solutions at HDS. Both firms denied speculation that Hitachi was looking to acquire NetApps.

Under the terms of the agreement HDS will offer NetApps' enterprise NAS gateway solutions for its Freedom Storage environments, allowing customers to extend their SANs with NAS, said Bignell.

"It will open up new markets for us," said Mark Stevens, country manager at NetApps. "A lot of accounts have HDS infrastructure investments, and this will allow us to complement them in those accounts."