Roundup: Oracle, Pillar, CA Technologies, Dell

Here’s a roundup of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

Oracle acquires Pillar Data Systems.  Oracle (ORCL) announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Pillar Data Systems, a privately held SAN storage company.  Pillar is majority owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. Oracle President Mark Hurd and EVP John Fowler will present an update today (June 30) on Oracle Storage strategy. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in July 2011. "The acquisition of Pillar Data Systems provides Oracle with a compelling SAN storage architecture that complements our core strengths," said John Fowler, Executive Vice President of Systems at Oracle. "Customers can optimize the value of their Oracle applications, database, middleware and operating system software by running on Oracle’s storage solutions." Pillar CEO Mike Workman comments on the acquisition in his blog.

CA Technologies to acquire ITKO.  CA Technologies (CA) announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Interactive TKO, Inc. (ITKO), a provider of service simulation solutions for developing applications in composite and cloud environments, for $330 million in an all-cash transaction. "ITKO’s technology allows customers to anticipate how their applications will perform in alternate environments, significantly reducing risk, and accelerating their time to value," said David Dobson, executive vice president, Customer Solutions Group, CA Technologies. "Together, we believe we will offer the broadest continuum of IT management solutions—one that spans planning to production, emphasizes the service over the infrastructure, and accommodates the new heterogeneity that includes on-premise, cloud and hybrid application environments." The ITKO addition will complement CA's ability to encompass the entire service delivery lifecycle and will compliment their Service Assurance, Service Automation, Service Management and Turnk-key Cloud solutions.

Dell to transform the data center for Towers Watson.  Dell announced today that it has signed a new five-year contract with Towers Watson for comprehensive IT services and solutions, including a full range of transformation and infrastructure services. Dell's solution will include a reference architecture for supporting compute, storage and backup requirements, a consolidation project for taking nine existing data centers into two highly resilient compute environments, and provide ongoing managed services operating the new compute platform. “Dell Services has worked closely with our Towers Watson team to develop the strategy, reference architecture, transformation approach and meet our demanding timeframes and financial objectives for this critical initiative," said John Dabek, CTO of Towers Watson.