EMC Acquires Bus-Tech Enabling Mainframe Users to Migrate Off Aging Tape-Based Storage

EMC® has acquired Bedford, Massachusetts-based Bus-Tech®, Inc. Bus-Tech is a privately held provider of VTL (Virtual Tape Library) solutions that utilize open systems disk storage to store and retrieve mainframe tape data. Bus-Tech products enhance EMC solutions for mainframe batch processing, backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and data archiving applications. Bus-Tech now becomes part of the rapidly growing EMC Backup Recovery Systems division, which delivers next-generation, disk-based backup and recovery solutions. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact to EMC GAAP and non-GAAP EPS for the full 2010 fiscal year.

The opportunity for mainframe users to eliminate tape infrastructure and embrace next-generation disk-based backup solutions is being driven by mainframe virtual tape and data deduplication technologies. Bus-Tech and EMC are technology and market leaders in these respective categories. IDC estimates mainframe tape storage and media revenues will be $2.5 billion between 2010 and 2014, creating a significant market opportunity for disk-based storage in mainframe tape environments. The combination of EMC disk library and EMC deduplication storage systems with Bus-Tech mainframe virtual tape library controllers gives mainframe users a simple, cost-effective way to eliminate complex and aging tape-based systems. This accelerates their batch, backup and disaster recovery processes while providing automation and reliability levels that tape-based systems simply cannot deliver. Frank Slootman, President of EMC’s Backup Recovery Systems division, said, “Mainframe users are not immune to the challenges with tape when it comes to backup and recovery. In a few short years, the application of data deduplication and disk-based storage has literally transformed the backup market. The addition of Bus-Tech will enable us to deliver a suite of next-generation mainframe backup products that are highly differentiated in terms of performance, integration and supportability.”