Data storage companies focus on flash M&A potential

Sliding into eighth place is flash memory company SanDisk Corp., which added cache software to its technology stable by acquiring FlashSoft Corp. eight months after it came out of startup. SanDisk's solid-state drives are used by Dell, EqualLogic, NetApp, Hewlett-Packard and others. FlashSoft released Windows Server and Linux versions of the flash caching software prior to the acquisition. In August, SanDisk released the VMware vSphere version designed to accelerate application performance and virtual machine density. The SanDisk-FlashSoft flash memory company acquisition put a spotlight on the importance of software to flash vendors.