EMC Puts OuterBay Inside

EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) acquired another piece of its information lifecycle management (ILM) strategy today by ramping up its relationship with OuterBay Technologies Inc.

EMC's taking its deal with OuterBay a step beyond a reseller agreement and hinting that it could lead to something bigger. The companies say they will integrate the OuterBay Application Data Management suite technologies into EMC's storage systems.

"We're engaged now. In January, the marriage gets consummated and hopefully will bear fruit," says EMC's Senior VP of Information Management Software, Mark Sorenson.

Sorenson promises more details in January, but claims the OuterBay deal has "more depth" than a reseller agreement.

The OuterBay software allows management of structured records stored in databases. That gives EMC functionality lacking in the products it acquired by buying Legato and Documentum earlier this year (see EMC Swings Into Software Big Leagues).OuterBay’s products essentially do ILM for data organized for databases, and we believe that’s what EMC is interested in,” says Clay Sumner, VP of technology at Legg Mason Inc. “We’ve been expecting the two to draw nearer.”

OuterBay’s Application Data Management suite identifies and archives completed transactions in Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL), PeopleSoft Inc. (Nasdaq: PSFT), or custom applications. The archived data is sent to cheaper storage while the uncompleted transactions remain in servers and storage devices that allow immediate access (see OuterBay Applies Itself and OuterBay: The Data Police? ).

"This is another leg in the stool," Sorenson says. "I think one of the underserved componenets of the ILM market is the ability to manage unstructured data."

Sorenson says OuterBay's software will initially show up in EMC Centera and parts of EMC's ControlCenter suite.

EMC will sell the integrated products, broadening OuterBay’s sales channel. Most of OuterBay’s current sales are direct, with some through resellers (see OuterBay Rolls Out Reseller Program).“This brings us strategic advantages that we won’t be able to do through other partnerships,” says Maureen Kelly, OuterBay’s director of marketing.

The two companies first formed a partnership last January by making OuterBay’s LiveArchive available on EMC Centera (see OuterBay Hooks Into EMC Centera. “That was the foundation that fueled this bigger relationship,” Kelly says.

OuterBay, a Campbell, Calif.-based company founded in 1997, has raised $27 million in funding from investors BA Venture Partners, Leapfrog Ventures, Mayfield, and Redpoint Ventures (see OuterBay Raises $8M Series B).

— Dave Raffo, Senior Editor, Byte and Switch