IBM Expands Digital Content Storage With XIV Buy

IBM has acquired XIV, a privately held storage technology company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, IBM announced Wednesday. The deal, which closed Dec. 31, will expand IBM's technology offerings for storing next-generation digital content in a Web 2.0 world, the company said.

IBM did not disclose the purchase price for XIV, but Globes, an Israeli business Website, said the deal was worth $300 million to $350 million. XIV is now operating as a subsidiary of IBM and will become part of the IBM System Storage business unit of the IBM Systems and Technology Group.

XIV's Nextra storage platform combines software and clustered industry-standard hardware into high performance, high-capacity storage systems that can manage large volumes of digital content, including Web 2.0 applications, digital media and digital archives. Nextra also can self-tune for optimum performance and heal itself in the event of system failure, according to IBM.

IBM expects to introduce the XIV technology to its channel partners over time, offering them an opportunity to attract new customers that need to store and manage large volumes of digital data, said David Vaughn, worldwide marketing manager for IBM storage. XIV currently sells its products directly to customers.

XIV has been shipping Nextra for about two years and customers are using the technology to manage more than four petabytes of storage capacity, IBM said. An IBM-branded version of the product will likely be introduced later this year, Vaughn said.

XIV is the latest of a number of storage technology-related acquisitions IBM has made in recent years, including FileNet, Softek and NovusCG. Just last month IBM acquired Arsenal Digital Solutions, a Cary, N.C.-based supplier of online data protection services.

Over the next few months IBM will be testing Nextra's integration with other IBM systems, including FileNet software, enterprise content management applications and Tivoli systems management software, according to Vaughn. "That's very high on our list of things to do, going forward," he said.