ADIC buying data compression company
Posted by Sachin Garg on 8th April 2006 | Permanent Link
Press Release: Advanced Digital Information Corp. said on March 15th that it is buying Rocksoft Ltd. for its data compression technology.
ADIC announced will pay $63 million for the Australian business. Rocksoft’s software removes duplicated data from stored information and can effectively compress that data up to 20 times.
Rocksoft’s technology works by splitting a file into variably sized partitions called blockets. Each blocklet is given a hash address. If a single blocklet in a file has a new element added to it, then instead of the whole file being stored each time it’s reopened, only the changed blocket is added to the stored data.
ADIC plans to integrate the de-duplication software into its branded products. Peter van Oppen, ADIC chairman and CEO, said Rocksoft’s expertise and technology “will allow us to introduce new solutions based on powerful increases in resource efficiency.”
ADIC intends to use the Rocksoft software in conjunction with tape library products and its PathLight VX disk arrays.
ADIC said that if Rocksoft’s software is used in conjunction with continuous data protection technology, which replicates all data changes at the byte level, it could radically reduce disk capacity and bandwidth needs on storage networks and reduce costs.
Data replication across WAN links could also take less time and data transmission to and from remote offices would also be improved, ADIC said.
ADIC said the Rocksoft product’s hash addressing used by blocklets is also a data integrity check. The combined ADIC array and Rocksoft software then could be used for compliance purposes to ensure files or documents have not been altered from the original, allowing competition with other content addressed storage products, such as EMC’s Centera array.
The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter.