HP has gone to the software acquisition well again and purchased storage specialist OuterBay for an undisclosed sum.

OuterBay carved out a decent niche as an EMC and HP partner. The companies teamed to sell versions of OuterBay's Application Data Management software suite - a package that makes it possible to discover and archive database transactions or transactions from homemade applications. The archived information is then moved off to cheap storage boxes.

EMC was the first major storage vendor to partner with OuterBay, which has raised up to $40m in venture funding. HP signed on as a reseller in September of 2005.

The acquisition - expected to close in two weeks - builds on HP's pursuit of management software companies. It has purchased the likes of AppIQ, Peregrine Systems and RLX in recent months.

"With OuterBay's technology, HP can help organizations to more effectively manage database growth and improve database performance by up to 80 percent - a critical capability in today's business environment where database information is in constant use," HP said. "The technology additionally will enable HP to expand its solutions for customers deploying Oracle, SQLServer, and Sybase databases as well as major enterprise applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP and PeopleSoft."

So there you have it. ®

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