HP Pays $360m for SAN Vendor LeftHand

Hewlett-Packard has agreed to acquire storage virtualization and SAN provider LeftHand Networks for $360m in a counter-move to Dell’s acquisition of LeftHand rival EqualLogic for $1.4 billion last November.

The company said LeftHand’s portfolio, which includes advanced data replication technology with bandwidth management and failover protection for backup and disaster-recovery operations, will enable it to extend its virtualization offerings to the midmarket with software that runs on both existing storage and industry-standard server hardware.

HP already has StorageWorks All-in-One Storage System and StorageWorks Modular Smart Array for small companies, and StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array for large companies. It said LeftHand’s products are already certified to work with HP ProLiant servers, HP BladeSystem infrastructure, HP ProCurve Networking, and HP Insight Control management software.

Dave Roberson, senior vice president and general manager of StorageWorks Division at HP, said: “The acquisition of LeftHand Networks significantly expands our storage portfolio, enabling HP to deliver customers an expanded suite of storage functionality, scalable capacity, and interconnect options for every budget and performance requirement.”

Lefthand has 215 employees and more than 3,000 customers. It will be integrated into the StorageWorks division of HP’s Technology Solutions Group after the closure of the deal.