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Shepard told CRN via e-mail that Rich Corely, the founder of Akorri, along with the company's CFO and CEO, called him on Tuesday night to thank Shepard for his help.
"(They) called me last night to inform me that my reference and outline to NetApp as to why they should buy Akorri and why this will hurt EMC was instrumental in securing this deal," Shepard wrote. "I had tried in 2009 to get EMC to buy Akorri, the deal was close then fell off due to EMC's very poor offer, (which) insulted Akorri. . . . I drilled home to (the) NetApp team on my call in October that they will beat EMC from the start in the Unified (storage) space. Rich (Corely) called me again this morning to set up a meeting to discuss how this will effect partners like ICI that has built Akorri as mainstay but are EMC focused only."
Greg Richardson, an analyst at Technology Business Research, wrote in a report after the acquisition bid was announced that the move will help NetApp drive unit sales of unified storage, which includes storage appliances that handle both file-based (NAS) and block-based (SAN) data, into virtualized environments.
"By leveraging Akorri’s virtualization management portfolio, TBR expects NetApp to capitalize on Akorri’s existing virtualization customer base as a means to cross-sell," Richardson wrote. "Simultaneously, NetApp will pursue opportunities to bundle its acquired management tools and unified storage for virtual environments to drive further revenue and margin growth."
The acquisition could also help NetApp simplify the management of data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its customers’ storage environments, Richardson wrote.
"TBR expects NetApp to tout the management and analytics capabilities of Akorri’s portfolio to push data management deeper into its customers’ line of business practices," he wrote. "By leveraging management tools, NetApp is simplifying users’ abilities to digest information surrounding data storage environments, better positioning the data to be leveraged by more individuals to solve business need-specific problems."
Aaron Rakers, an analyst with research firm Stifel Nicolaus, wrote in a report after the acquisition bid was announced that Akorri’s BalancePoint solutions are used to optimize virtualized performance in cloud-computing architectures.
"We believe this tuck-in acquisition will fit nicely with NetApp’s architectural/product positioning, which we believe is well positioned to take advantage of secular dynamics associated with the increased importance of storage in virtualized/cloud data center deployments," Rakers wrote.
Andrew Hickey contributed to this article.
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