IBM boosts storage products, services with acquisition

Green storage, services engagements targeted in NovusCG buy

IBM bolstered its line of storage products and services Wednesday by acquiring NovusCG, a provider of consulting as well as software for storage analysis and reporting.

IBM has collaborated with Novus on services engagements since 2003. Buying the company outright could give IBM a boost in its competition with storage powerhouse EMC.

“Novus’ assets and methodologies provide a standardized, repeatable approach for assessing and optimizing storage in multivendor environments,” IBM stated in a press release announcing the acquisition. “Its storage analysis and reporting software, tools and asset-based delivery model will enhance IBM’s ability to produce services engagement results in reduced time.”

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IBM bolstered its line of storage products and services Wednesday by acquiring NovusCG, a provider of consulting as well as software for storage analysis and reporting.

IBM has collaborated with Novus on services engagements since 2003. Buying the company outright could give IBM a boost in its competition with storage powerhouse EMC.

“Novus’ assets and methodologies provide a standardized, repeatable approach for assessing and optimizing storage in multivendor environments,” IBM stated in a press release announcing the acquisition. “Its storage analysis and reporting software, tools and asset-based delivery model will enhance IBM’s ability to produce services engagement results in reduced time.”

Novus’ software includes Storage Enterprise Resource Planner, which provides a view of storage use at the business level, to identify unnecessary duplication of storage and enable accurate chargeback and capacity planning, IBM says.

Green storage is one focus of this acquisition, as IBM says Novus will help provide external services for optimizing storage in environmentally friendly ways.

Novus technology will be a key part of optimizing and establishing storage tiers as part of IBM’s System Storage disk and tape products. Novus will also integrate with plenty of other IBM products, including Total Productivity Center, Tivoli Storage Manager, Tivoli Storage Process Manager and SAN Volume Controller.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

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