EMC Shows Hope For Storage-Security Marriages

Symantec raised eyebrows when it bought storage vendor Veritas last year, and now EMC plans to acquire RSA Security for about $2.1 billion. The marriage of storage systems and security technologies could be a strong union after all.

Under CEO Joe Tucci, EMC has been on a quest to expand beyond storage hardware in recent years. It has used acquisitions to move into content, information life-cycle, and business-process management. In the past two months, it has acquired several smaller companies, including ProActivity, which makes software for analyzing and managing data. EMC sees data security tools from RSA as a logical addition to a strategy for information life-cycle management. Information security "has become an inseparable attribute of information management," Tucci said in a statement. EMC will make RSA its information security division if the deal closes as expected this fall.

Then, like Symantec, EMC needs to prove it can make these acquired pieces work together for its customers.