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IBM has announced plans to acquire Texas Memory Systems, a maker of high-performance flash memory solutions.
Big Blue announced Aug. 16 that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held, Houston-based TMS. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The move will bolster IBM’s already significant storage solutions portfolio.
IDC estimates the amount of solid-state storage solutions being shipped into the enterprise will grow significantly, reaching nearly 3 exabytes by 2016.
Founded in 1978, TMS designs and sells high-performance solid-state storage solutions. Unlike hard-disk drives that rely on spinning disks and robotic arms, solid-state systems are high-speed data storage solutions based on flash or RAM memory that can provide significantly faster throughput and data access while consuming less power, IBM said.
TMS offers its solid-state solutions as the RamSan family of shared rackmount systems and Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) cards. The TMS products are designed to help organizations improve performance and reduce server sprawl, power consumption, cooling and floor-space requirements, all of which can help clients save money, improve performance and invest more in innovation, IBM said.
“The TMS strategy and solution set align well with our Smarter Computing approach to information technology by helping clients realize increased performance and efficiencies at lower costs,” Brian Truskowski, general manager of Systems Storage and Networking at IBM, said in a statement. “Solid-state technology, in particular, is a critical component of our new Smarter Storage approach to the design and deployment of storage infrastructures, and part of a holistic approach that exploits flash in conjunction with disk and tape technologies to solve complex problems.”
Following the close of the acquisition, IBM plans to invest in and support the TMS product portfolio, and will look to integrate over time TMS technologies into solutions, including storage, servers, software and PureSystems offerings, Big Blue officials said.
“IBM understands the positive and dramatic impact solid-state technology can have on storage and server infrastructures, and once the acquisition is complete, we look forward to advancing the technology even further,” Holly Frost, founder and CEO of TMS, said in a statement. “With the global reach of IBM, we expect to grow the engineering staff and product lines much faster than we could before,”
TMS employs approximately 100. The deal is expected to close later in 2012.