NetApp has acquired Austin-based CacheIQ, a privately-held a privately storage solutions company, for an undisclosed amount, according to a NetApp news release.
CacheIQ was started in 2010 by Joel Trammel and other veteran storage and networking entrepreneurs, according to its CrunchBase profile. The company raised $6 million in angel funding from 25 private investors.
“The company is developing software to solve the network storage bottlenecks that plague today’s data centers,” according to its profile.
“The acquisition will provide NetApp with intellectual property that extends its capabilities to support nondisruptive operations for enterprise data center environments,” according to the NetApp news release. “NetApp will integrate this intellectual property into its product offerings over time.”
The Austin Business Journal reported on Wednesday that CacheIQ had 14 employees in Austin and that it bought “the intellectual property of Austin-based Storspeed Inc., which was founded in 2007.”
Also, the Austin Business Journal reported that Trammel, chairman of the Austin Technology Council, previously co-founded Austin-based NetQoS Inc. which was sold for $200 million.
Tag: CacheIQ
By L.A. Lorek
Got tech talent?
Then Austin companies want to recruit you.
A group of Austin CEOs plan to travel to San Francisco and Sunnyvale on Sept. 13th and 14th to hire engineers, software developers and others with technology skills.
Many Silicon Valley area companies already have a presence in Austin, but this will be the first organized effort by area CEOs to hire high tech workers from California, said Joel Trammell, chairman of the Austin Technology Council.
“We certainly have good talent in Austin,” said Trammel, who also serves as CEO of CacheIQ. But the city’s growing high-tech industry needs more, he said. His company seeks three or four more software developers, he said. And it’s not alone.
In May, the Austin Technology Council hosted a high tech CEO summit and many company executives reported a shortage of engineers, coders, programmers and software developers.
The 30 companies travelling to Silicon Valley to recruit include Homeaway, BazaarVoice, Gowalla, CacheIQ, Ravel and Creditcards.com.
Why would software developers pull up stakes and move to Austin? The city repeatedly lands on best place to live in the country lists. Austin ranked second behind Silicon Valley on the nation’s most innovative places list compiled by Forbes Magazine. And Kiplinger’s list of best cities for nurturing a business. Austin offers a much lower cost of living, shorter traffic commutes, high quality schools and a strong high tech community, Trammell said. Also, Texas does not have a state income tax, he said.
“The lifestyle is amazing,” said Bart Bohn, chief operating officer of Ravel, which needs four new employees focused on product sales and services. Ravel does analytics on big data.
“Austin is shockingly easy to recruit for,” Bohn said. “It has great brand recognition. Everyone thinks of it as fantastic lifestyle with good technology jobs. A lot of people get exposure to it in other ways like Austin City Limits Music Festival and South by Southwest.”
Already, several big Silicon Valley companies have offices here.
“Most people don’t know that Apple has a 3,000 person office in Austin,” Bohn said.
Google and Facebook also have offices here and Evernote is going to open one soon, he said.
“Austin is known to have a great talent base,” Bohn said.
Austin has recently seen an explosion of good, credible start-ups combined with the opening of established tech companies’ offices and that has increased the demand for technology talent, Bohn said.
“Maybe that sucked up a lot of talent that would be available for other companies,” he said.
CreditCards.com wants to add up to five new employees to its staff of 55 in Austin, said CEO Chris Speltz.
“We need to grow the talent pool here,” he said.
For more information, you can follow the Austin Technology Council on Twitter @ATCouncil or follow the conversation on Twitter with #ATXGrow.
