Sun Microsystems Acquires Procom Technology Intellectual-Property Assets

In a signal that it could be preparing to intensify its thrust into the storage market, Sun Microsystems announced Monday that it is acquiring valuable intellectual property rights to Network-attached storage (NAS) technology.

Sun said it was acquiring the IP assets from Procom Technology for about $50 million. Procomm Technology has been a pioneer in NAS since the late 1980s. The two firms have had a software licensing agreement covering aspects of NAS since April of 2004.

"The entire storage marketplace is clearly moving toward industry-standard platforms and operating systems," said Sun's president and chief operating officer Jonathan Schwartz in a statement. "Sun is uniquely positioned to leverage Procom's technology to drive down the cost of NAS appliances for customers, while driving margin opportunities for Sun."

Sun noted that its current NAS offerings provide a foundation to its Sun StorEdge 5310 Compliance Archiving System, which serves customers seeking to comply with government regulations and data integrity requirements. The firm said ownership of the IP rights will help it build future storage systems faster and more cost-effectively.