GlassHouse Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of independent storage services and consulting, today announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Sagitta Performance Systems and Source Consulting, the two leading U.K.-based storage services companies. This acquisition, expected to close within several weeks, will add over 300 clients to the impressive GlassHouse client list. These existing clients, as well as other European businesses, will benefit from GlassHouse’s innovative Storage Management Lifecyclesm approach, providing policies and procedures to standardize, centralise and simplify storage strategies and operations from an independent perspective. The planned acquisition reflects the importance of the EMEA storage services market, which a leading industry analyst predicts will be worth nearly $8 billion this year and will grow 5.8 percent year on year for the next three years.
Finding the most effective information management solution is one of the biggest headaches for today’s CIOs’ and IT directors’ growing storage problems. Through the planned acquisition, GlassHouse will be doubling its size and will be more able to address the increasing risk, cost and complexity currently dominating data management in Europe and the U.S. by providing customers with expanded storage services expertise and resources on two continents, from a vendor independent standpoint. This will be achieved by focusing on the people, process and technology required to improve efficiency of existing storage environments and lower the risk and cost of designing, implementing and managing new storage infrastructures and storage management process changes.
“Gartner Dataquest projects that the worldwide storage services market will grow to over $30 Billion by 2007,” said Gartner Principal Analyst Adam Couture. “The fastest growth segments are in consulting and management services where we are anticipating double digit growth. This bodes well for companies focusing on these storage service segments.”
“The success of GlassHouse, Source and Sagitta clearly demonstrates that corporate IT departments around the world face similar challenges of managing storage and IT resources effectively, and doing more with less,” said Mark Shirman, CEO and president, GlassHouse Technologies, Inc. “GlassHouse’s strategy is to be a global company, and establishing GlassHouse in Europe with this strong and experienced team is the first milestone in that strategy. It is a solid proof point that our company is delivering a unique value by helping businesses solve their storage issues.”
“The effective management of data policies and storage resources has become increasingly important to all our clients, but so too has their need for international service support,” commented Jason Rabbetts, managing director, GlassHouse Technologies U.K. Ltd. “The planned acquisition will represent a watershed in the storage services marketplace by consolidating expert resources globally and will present exciting opportunities for our clients and partners alike.”
GlassHouse Technologies U.K. Ltd.
Source Consulting and Sagitta Performance Systems have merged to form Europe’s largest independent storage services provider. The planned acquisition of the combined companies will bring over 100 storage specialists and consultants into the GlassHouse operation, creating the world’s largest independent storage services company of some 220 expert personnel. The new U.K. organisation will be known as GlassHouse Technologies U.K. Ltd. and will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of GlassHouse Technologies, Inc. Clients of GlassHouse (U.K.) Ltd. include Marks & Spencer, Virgin Atlantic, Experian, Linklaters, B&Q, Debenhams and Camelot.
The management of GlassHouse U.K. will be led by Jason Rabbetts, managing director and Andy Norman, senior vice president of Technology Services, reporting to a newly formed European management team led by Mark J. Vargo, managing director, GlassHouse EMEA. Alan Watkins, former managing director and founder of Cisco Systems Ltd., will serve as non-executive chairman for GlassHouse EMEA.
“Both medium and large U.S. and European- based organisations have repeatedly requested a global storage services capability from an independent perspective,” commented Mark J. Vargo, managing director, GlassHouse EMEA. “Some companies are very vocal, saying that an unbiased, trusted advisor is needed to help them with their information infrastructure and management growth problems. We are simply the first to move in this space and answer the needs of our clients on a global basis. And in doing so, we believe we can help manufacturers and consumers become more competitive.”
Both new and existing customers will benefit from GlassHouse’s extensive industry experience of working with large organisations, proven best practices approach, and its global reach to help with information lifecycle challenges.
About GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.
GlassHouse Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of services that help organizations solve the business problems of enterprise storage. From strategy through implementation, operations and customer support, GlassHouse partners with clients to achieve predictability and manageability in storage and backup operations, transforming storage into a strategic advantage. GlassHouse clients include Bioegn Idec, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), Hartz Mountain industries, Inc., Pitney-Bowes, Inc. (NYSE: PBI) and The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. More information about GlassHouse is available at www.glasshouse.com.
