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Sun to Acquire NT Storage Management Provider HighGround

Continuing to expand its focus on the multi-billion dollar storage market, Sun Microsystems Inc. announced on Monday that it is acquiring HighGround Systems, a Windows NT-focused storage resource management solution provider, for $400 million in stock. The acquisition is expected to close sometime during the third quarter of 2001.

The impending acquisition will give Sun the ability to manage open systems, including Windows NT. Although HighGround mainly plays in the NT market, it does have clients for other systems such as HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, and Tru64 Unix.

As many well know, Sun is anything but an NT advocate and the move marks Sun’s first foray into the Windows NT storage market. However, at this time, Sun’s plans remain murky, as it is not yet known whether Sun will continue HighGround’s NT focus or concentrate on HighGround’s other areas of expertise.

Founded in May 1995, HighGround  enables companies to keep track of how much storage they have and what the rate of growth is.  Its flagship product, Storage Resource Manager, is a  Web-enabled solution that empowers IT managers to take full possession of all their storage resources and control access to their data from a central management location – James Martin

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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