US-based data protection and information management software company, Commvault today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire software-defined storage provider, Hedvig, for total consideration of $225 million, which includes the purchase price and ongoing employee retention.

Commvault points out that Gartner expects that by 2023, software-defined storage instantiations of vendor storage operating systems running in the cloud will become the dominant method of building multi cloud storage infrastructures.

This move to cloud, and multi cloud environments, together with cloud native applications is driving competitive advantage for companies for all sizes; yet the acceleration of data fragmentation is negatively impacting business outcomes, the company says.

It adds that this rapid data growth, generated from a variety of sources stored both within on-premises environments and in the cloud will continue to create significant governance, security and management challenges.

"This acquisition demonstrates how Commvault is leading the way towards the intersection of storage and data management," says Sanjay Mirchandani, Commvault CEO. "We believe joining Hedvig's innovative software defined storage capabilities with Commvault's industry leading data protection reduces fragmentation and leapfrogs other solutions in the market."

Commvault notes that Hedvig drives operational efficiency, addresses the data sovereignty problems stemming from data governance laws, and enables hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud capabilities natively.

Operational efficiency is achieved via complete protocol consolidation (block, file, and object storage) on a single platform.

"Being completely software-based, the Hedvig platform can span multiple data centres across multiple physical geographies including disparate cloud environments," according to Avinash Lakshman, Hedvig chief executive officer.

"This may be the most comprehensive solution ever unleashed into enterprise data centers and public cloud environments."

Hedvig was founded in 2012 by Avinash Lakshman, the inventor of Apache Cassandra and one of the inventors of Amazon Dynamo.

The proposed acquisition is expected to close in Commvault's fiscal third quarter, subject to certain closing conditions.

"Hedvig's technology is in its prime. It has been market tested and proven. We believe that the convergence of storage, multi cloud, and cloud native technologies, combined with our leadership in data management will accelerate the movement towards modern applications built on containers and microservices. Commvault will set the bar for the unification of storage and data management for the future," Mirchandani concludes.