Dell has acquired app backup provider AppAssure as it looks to boost its already flourishing storage business.
Virginia-based AppAssure claims to offer "near-zero recovery time" for apps on virtual or physical infrastructure, or hosted in the cloud.
The company, whose 230 employees look set to be retained by Dell, believes it has the "industry's fastest backup and recovery of virtual servers" too, covering VMware, Hyper-V and XenServer hypervisor environments.
AppAssure enables Dell customers to seamlessly move and replicate data across our existing platforms.
"AppAssure's unique architecture delivers innovative cloud-enabled backup and replication solutions that meet the challenges of protecting the explosive growth of data in both virtual and physical environments," said Brad Anderson, presiden for Dell's Enterprise Solutions Group.
"At a practical level, AppAssure enables Dell customers to seamlessly move and replicate data across our existing platforms - from an EqualLogic array in a remote office to a Compellent array at a data recovery site."
Dell said it would invest in additional engineering and sales capability to grow the AppAssure business.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The acquisition marks another major play from Dell in the storage space, coming after its Compellent purchase last year which has helped the company post solid results from that side of its business.
Dell recently ditched EMC as a major partner as the Texan company looks to follow its own storage path.
Dell's quarterly results released earlier this week showed the company's storage division was the fastest growing part of its business.
In the fourth quarter, Dell saw its storage division grow 33 per cent, whilst Compellent had sequential growth of over 60 per cent.
Rival HP, which had a bidding war with Dell over 3PAR in 2010, saw sales of enterprise servers, storage and networking equipment drop 10 per cent over the last quarter.
"Dell's acquisition of AppAssure is a strategic industry move given its relentless focus on providing innovative solutions to protect customers' applications and data in cloud, virtual and physical environments," added Najaf Husain, president and CEO of AppAssure.
