Data storage companies focus on flash M&A potential

Number 10 on our 2012 merger and acquisition countdown is NetApp Inc.'s acquisition of CacheIQ Inc., which was more about obtaining caching engineering expertise than CacheIQ's product. Think about CacheIQ as a technology "tuck-in," NetApp CEO Tom Georgens explained at the time. The November deal was about intellectual property, not any single product Georgens wants to integrate into the NetApp line. For data storage pros, the deal signals more movement in the flash and cache market; 2012 was filled with flash technology news, and vendors are racing to provide NAS acceleration technology to their arrays.