Oracle Acquires Storage Startup GreenBytes, Plans To Use It For ZFS Appliances

Oracle on Thursday said it has agreed to acquire GreenBytes, a Providence, R.I.-based storage startup that sells technology to service providers that makes virtual desktops less expensive. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

GreenBytes works with ZFS, the open source file system developed by Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired in 2010. In a press release, Oracle said it plans to use GreenBytes technology in its line of ZFS Storage Appliances.

Seth Feeley, sales director at Cintra, a New York-based Oracle partner, told CRN that GreenBytes will help improve the functionality and performance of Oracle's storage appliances.

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"Demand for Cintra's Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance services offerings have grown significantly this year, and I can see how GreenBytes technology will further enhance Oracle's engineered systems offerings," Feeley said in an email.

GreenBytes uses deduplication technology, which ensures data isn't getting backed up multiple times unnecessarily, to reduce Flash storage requirements in virtual desktop environments. In addition to cutting costs and increasing scalability, GreenBytes said this approach is good for "persistent" desktops, or virtual desktops that look and feel like physical ones.

Founded in 2007, GreenBytes sells an appliance called IO-Offload to telecommunications and managed service providers around the world. GreenBytes also sells vIO, a virtual storage appliance running IO-Offload that exists as software installed in the hypervisor.

GreenBytes has partnerships with Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, as well as a number of SAN vendors. The startup has raised $42.5 million to date from lead investors Generation Investment Management and Battery Ventures.

Oracle said it expects to close the GreenBytes acquisition by the end of June.

PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2014