Data storage companies focus on flash M&A potential

Dell Inc.'s acquisition of AppAssure's backup and replication software for virtual and physical machines places sixth in our countdown. The February acquisition was nowhere near the size of the $2.4 billion Quest acquisition Dell made later in the year, but the Dell-AppAssure deal gives Dell its own backup software IP. AppAssure technology allows for heterogeneous replication and snapshots, and lets users recover from a virtual machine (VM) if their physical machine crashes -- even if data wasn't backed up to a VM. In November, Dell launched its PowerVault DL4000 appliance with AppAssure software.