GlassHouse Acquires Systems Group Integration

GlassHouse Technologies, Inc. has acquired UK-based virtualization infrastructure consulting company, Systems Group Integration (SGI).

The acquisition broadens GlassHouse’s existing virtualization capabilities by combining vendor experience with analysis tools, helping customers realise ROI, increase efficiencies and reduce carbon emissions in their IT environments.

SGI has specialized in Microsoft and virtualization technologies for over 15 years. Its services and solutions for all aspects of distributed IT architecture will be integrated into GlassHouse’s existing and complementary platform business to help customers build effective, service centric infrastructures and realize ROI on their virtualization investments. The timely acquisition responds to increased customer demand for wide scale adoption to include server, desktop and storage virtualization over the coming years.

The move will also increase the depth of GlassHouse’s vendor relationships to optimize GlassHouse consultants’ access and knowledge of the very latest product developments. GlassHouse remains completely vendor independent and will use vendor information, alongside its Transom methodologies to advise customers on the best strategies for individual business needs.

The acquisition will also strengthen GlassHouse’s relationship with partners such as Dell; both SGI and GlassHouse are approved Dell partners, with SGI being a preferred partner for virtualization practice. GlassHouse partners will now have access to its broader virtualization resources as well as expertise in storage, back up, data centers, security and managed services.

Mark Shirman, GlassHouse President and CEO comments; "GlassHouse has been operating in the virtualization space for a number of years now, and has seen an increase in the large-scale data center projects leveraging virtualization to create a greener and more efficient environment. SGI brings experience and IP to GlassHouse that broadens existing capabilities ensures that customers are implementing the right virtualization strategy with a measurable ROI for their particular business needs. This will also contribute significantly to GlassHouse’s consistent growth and will strengthen our position in the market into 2010 and beyond."

Tony Lock, Program Director at analyst firm, Freeform Dynamics comments; ”Virtualization is maturing beyond the testing and trial phase and is now addressing more areas within the data center. It is clearly gaining momentum in enterprise-level companies as businesses are recognizing the benefits it brings. These include improved energy efficiency, better resource management, improved ROI and, when well executed, enables IT to help the business be more effective, without adding to staff workloads. The acquisition of SGI by GlassHouse reflects this trend and holds the potential to deliver a wider range of infrastructure virtualization expertise to client organizations."