I almost missed this, and it happened in my own backyard: Portland-based virtualization startup RNA Networks announced that it has been acquired by Dell.
It was a quiet announcement, marked only by the RNA Networks website posting an announcement reading “”RNA Networks, Inc. has been acquired by Dell Inc. Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more.” No further details are included, and the rest of the website has been taken down.
OregonLive cites Oregon Angel Fund manager Eric Rosenfeld saying that most of the company’s employees will remain in Portland.
An unnamed Dell spokesperson confirmed to The Register that the deal has been concluded. Neither Dell nor Rosenfeld disclosed financial details, but Rosenfeld said that it wasn’t the “home run” the company had been hoping for.
RNA Networks sells a virtual memory solution that enables users to pool the resources of several machines into one large virtual machine – a sort of reverse hypervisor. Unlike ScaleMP, which offers a solution for building single virtual server images from multiple physical servers (coverage), RNA Networks pools memory and makes it available to various independent servers to improve performance.
Dell has been expanding its cloud ambitions. It’s been an OpenStack supporter since the project was announced last year, and it is a Joyent reseller (and rumored investor). Earlier this year, Dell’s director of cloud announced on Twitter that Dell will offer a public cloud service, including both infrastructure-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service.
