In a push to expand further into the cloud-based storage market, EMC entered into an agreement to acquire Isilon, a Seattle-based provider of scale-out network-attaches storage solutions. The buyer announced Monday that it will pay about $2.25bn, or $33.85 per share in cash, in a transaction expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The buyer plans to combine its Atmos storage product with Isilon's offerings to offer scalable low-cost infrastructure for managing large amounts of data. EMC said its Atmos object-storage technology will complement Isilon's NAS systems, designed to scale up to 10 petabytes of storage capacity without disruptions. The aim is to provide a complete storage-infrastructure solution for private- or public-cloud environments.

Pat Gelsinger, EMC's president and chief operating officer, said the acquisition would accelerate growth of his company's storage revenue as well as broaden the range of customers in the market for storage systems. "EMC will invest in all aspects of Isilon's business to accelerate growth and take advantage of the fast-growing market opportunity ahead," he said in a statement.

Research firm IDC projects the scale-out NAS market segment to grow at an average annual rate of 36 percent, reaching about $6bn in 2014. EMC expects combined revenue from Isilon and Atmos products to reach $1bn run rate during second half of 2012.