With little fanfare, EMC has picked up another minor player in the SMB storage software market by pulling Allocity to its side.

EMC sealed the deal for Allocity on Oct. 22 but made no public mention of the deal. Byte and Switch first broke word of the move, placing the acquisition cost at close to $10m. EMC has now confirmed the buy but won't say if the $10m figure is accurate.

Allocity specializes in making storage software for customers running Microsoft Exchange on EMC's Clarrion hardware. Allocity's Live!Ex product plugs into Exchange System Manager (ESM) and handles tasks such as freeing up more storage space for users and backing up data. The idea is to let the software perform functions on its own without needing administrator attention.

Last month, EMC picked up Dantz - another storage software maker aimed at SMBs - for $50m.

These two recent buys have no doubt caught rivals' attention, as EMC looks to expand past its large business roots. It has been acquiring companies of all shapes and sizes for the past two years, but seems to be dead focused on the SMB market of late. This strategy makes particular sense given the success EMC has enjoyed by partnering with Dell on lower-end storage systems. ®

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