GlassHouse Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of independent storage services and consulting, today announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire two United Kingdom-based storage companies, Source Consulting and Sagitta Performance Systems, two of the largest storage services organizations in Europe. This acquisition, expected to close within several weeks, adds 300 clients to the GlassHouse roster and increases the company’s storage services and consulting resources for U.S. and European customers.
Source Consulting and Sagitta Performance Systems will be merged and operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary called GlassHouse Technologies U.K. Ltd. The acquisition brings GlassHouse’s total number of storage specialists and consultants to 220, making it the largest independent storage consulting firm in the world.
“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 services segments.”
“GlassHouse is the envy of all the service providers in the storage business,” said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, Enterprise Storage Group. “Their model is working, their customers are thrilled and they continue to do the right things. This deal extends the model overseas – where a lot of existing GlassHouse customers already have a presence.”
“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 and a solid proof point that our company is delivering a unique value by helping businesses solve their storage issues.”
GlassHouse Technologies U.K. will be led by Managing Director of Europe Mark Vargo (former managing director of Europe CNT), Jason Rabbetts, managing director, U.K., and Andy Norman, senior vice president of Technology Services. Alan Watkins, (former managing director and founder of Cisco Systems Ltd.), will serve as chairman of the board for GlassHouse in Europe.
“With our acquisition of Source Consulting and Sagitta Performance Systems in the United Kingdom, we are now able to provide our European and U.S. customers with expanded expertise and resources on two continents, from an independent vendor standpoint,” Vargo said.
About GlassHouse Technologies, Inc.
GlassHouse Technologies 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 Biogen 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.
