News

Veritas Buys ClusterX Technology

• By Scott Bekker
• 08/17/1999

The companies today announced the deal, which also involves 22 NuView employees joining Veritas Software by forming a new research & development office in Houston, where NuView is based. Veritas has headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

The acquisition adds Windows NT cluster management through ClusterX to the Sun Solaris and HP-UX clustering capability Veritas offers through its Veritas Cluster Server product.

"Increased demand for information availability – specifically in high-volume NT installations like Internet businesses – is driving the need for powerful solutions that can ensure business without interruption," Mark Leslie, Veritas chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. "ClusterX, together with Veritas Cluster Server, extends our enterprise clustering leadership and gives customers the dynamic, heterogeneous solutions they require to manage system availability in simple or complex environments."

ClusterX originally targeted two-node Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) systems, allowing administrators to monitor and manage many MSCS server pairs through a single console. In May, NuView released an upgrade adding support for Windows NT Load Balancing Services (WLBS) clusters and bringing management of both MSCS and WLBS clusters under one console.

Industry momentum had been building behind ClusterX, and NuView had formed partnerships with Dell Computer Corp., Data General Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Unisys Corp.

Veritas defines Veritas Cluster Server as an application-level availability management solution made for use in multi-node cluster configurations, including switched disk architectures. The product supports service-level failover across up to 32 nodes.

Initial plans call for marketing of ClusterX through Veritas’ OEM, direct and reseller channels. Plans to integrate ClusterX and Veritas Cluster Server will be released later this year, Veritas officials say.

Meanwhile, Legato Systems Inc. (www.legato.com) has been driving consolidation in the Windows NT systems clustering market this year. Within a few months, Legato acquired both FullTime Software and FullTime competitor Vinca Corp. -- Scott Bekker