Samsung Electronics has acquired Proximal Data, a developer of software that caches I/O in the server virtualization layer, to boost its SSD offering in the server market. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Proximal in San Diego, California, offers AutoCache, which attaches inside standard hypervisors such as VMware ESXi, where it inspects I/O from all virtual machines and places hot I/O into a local PCIe flash card or SSD.
Samsung today announced it has acquired caching company Proximal Data. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Based in San Diego, California, Proximal Data specializes in server-side caching software with I/O intelligence for virtualized systems (ESXi hypervisor as well as Microsoft’s Hyper-V). The goal is to boost storage performance by controlling and storing frequently used data more efficiently. Proximal Data’s AutoCache software, a virtual cache storage solution, is supposed to increase virtual machine density and performance by eliminating I/O bottlenecks. Virtual machines on server-attached flash drives thus execute faster. Proximal Data was founded in 2011 by CEO Rory Bolt. According to its management page, Bolt has more than 25 years of experience in data storage systems, data protection systems, and high performance computing. This is his fourth startup, and it’s also not his first successful exit. In the previous one, Avamar Technologies, he played a key role in selling the business to EMC for $165 million.
