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Oracle Buys One of Larry’s Other Companies

Pillar makes highly scalable ZFS-based Axiom SAN Block I/O storage systems

Oracle said Wednesday morning that it's buying Pillar Data Systems, a 10-year-old storage house that belongs mostly to Oracle chief Larry Ellison.

It's like the way Sun used to buy companies that belonged to founder Andy Bechtolsheim. That's how Sun came by OpenOffice.

Oracle says the Pillar deal was cut by an independent committee of its board and is structured as a 100% earn-out with no upfront payment. The acquisition should close in July and whatever Oracle winds up paying is supposed to be immaterial.

Pillar makes highly scalable ZFS-based Axiom SAN Block I/O storage systems. Buying it is supposed to help flesh out the storage line Oracle got with Sun.

For the sake of margins, Oracle fired the third-party storage makers that Sun used to sell to concentrate just on the Sun gear. It says "The combination of Oracle and Pillar's products are expected to help Oracle deliver to customers a complete line of storage products that runs Oracle software faster and more efficiently than traditional storage products. Customers can optimize the value of their Oracle applications, database, middleware and operating system software by running on Oracle's storage solutions."

Pillar has nearly 600 customers running 1,500 systems in 24 countries including the US Supreme Court. It claims to be better than EMC Clariion at SAN Block I/O.

More Stories By Maureen O'Gara

Maureen O'Gara the most read technology reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected technology reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara

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