However, according to Ina Fried, thishardwaretrendisabigchallengefor the software industry, since "mostoftoday'ssoftwareisn'tbuiltto handle that kind ofadvance".
"It's part of a growing trend to integrate hardware, software and services, " says Ross Rubin, director of consumer technology industry analysis for the NPD Group.
With many other companies offering enterprise flash storage hardware and software we believe that the trend of flash memory company acquisitions will only accelerate in the coming months.