NetApp has announced the acquisition of Topio, a California-based data de-duplication and protection software firm for $160m cash.

Topio software is able to create a data clone from several different storage sources within an enterprise, consolidating as it goes.

There's an obvious disaster recovery play arising from the ability to make quick clones from many sources; NetApp marketeers will be making much of Topio's blindness to the storage source, be it EMC, HDS, IBM, or whatever. More strategically, NetApp bosses will be hoping easier backup from Topio code will encourage upgrading from rusty iron to their core business in modern fibre channel SAN hardware.

The deal follows fellow storage vendor EMC's $165m buy of its own de-duplication target Avamar last week. The motivation for the deals is similar; EMC is hoping to nudge customers into buying new disk-based backup to replace tape.

NetApp's press release on its acquisition is here.

All being well with the various interested bean counters, the deal is expected to close in December. ®

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