C&W buys storage start-up's assets
Cable & Wireless' Exodus division purchases the core assets of StorageWay, a start-up that hosted customers' storage operations, for $2 million.
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Before the deal Exodus was a reseller of the StorageWay services, but now has bought the company's disk storage and tape backup services, Exodus said Thursday. The purchase also includes StorageWay's intellectual property, about 80 percent of its customer relationships, and its EMC-built storage hardware, said Scott Emo, director of product and services management at Exodus.
"This is the core of their business," Emo said. "We're hiring a number of (StorageWay) operations folks to continue the service."
StorageWay was one of a host of "storage service providers" hoping to profit by relieving companies of the burdens of running complex storage operations. But it's been a tough business as customers curtailed their spending on storage equipment and other computing technology after the Internet bubble burst and the recession hit.
Storability, one competitor to Exodus, has switched from storage services to storage management software, selling its services group to StorageTek. Another rival, StorageNetworks, made a similar move.
StorageWay received $42 million in funding in June 2001, money the company said would be enough to carry it to profitability by the end of the year.
StorageWay representatives were not available for comment Thursday.