Dell to acquire data-storage company 3Par for $1.13 billion

Computer maker Dell today said that it has agreed to buy data storage company 3Par for about $1.13 billion in cash to expand its offerings in cloud computing.

Fremont, California-based 3PAR is a global provider of utility storage, a category of highly virtualised, dynamically tiered, multi-tenant storage arrays built for public and private cloud computing.

Its virtualised storage platform is built to be agile and efficient so as to eliminate the limitations of traditional storage arrays for utility infrastructures.

3PAR customers include medium-to large-sized enterprises, business-oriented service providers, consumer-oriented Internet/Web 2.0 companies, financial service firms, and government entities.

Seven of the world's top 10 revenue-generating managed service providers, including Savvis, Verizon Business, and Terremark are using the 3PAR Utility Storage platform, according to the company.

Its competitors include data-storage giant EMC Corporation, Japan's Hitachi Ltd, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.