The shopping spree for data storage and management companies continues with NetApp announcing plans to buy Akorri Networks, a provider of data center management software. Financial terms of the all-cash deal were not disclosed.

 “The ability to accurately predict and manage performance and capacity requirements has been a common obstacle for many customers wanting to transition to a virtualized environment,” said Manish Goel, executive vice president of product operations at NetApp, in a press release. “Akorri further strengthens NetApp’s data management capabilities to achieve greater quality of service and performance in their virtual and cloud environments. With these enhanced capabilities, customers can accelerate their transition to a shared IT infrastructure so that they can use IT as a tool to capitalize on new growth opportunities and spend fewer resources managing their environments.”

The deal is expected to close in NetApp's fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in April. Last month, TechZone360.com reported that Dell purchased data storage company Compellent Technologies, Inc., for about $960 million in cash, strengthening its cloud computing and storage prowess against formidable rivals including Hewlett-Packard and IBM. 

In early September, Dell called it quits on a drawn-out bidding war for another storage provider, 3PAR. The company walked away after upping its offer to roughly $2.1 billion, representing $33 per share, an increase from the prior offer of $30 per share. 3PAR issued a statement calling the new offer from H-P a “superior proposal.”

And in November, in an effort to ramp up its mid-range storage systems product line, EMC Corp., one of the world’s top information infrastructure technology developers, purchased Isilon Systems. That same month, IBM announced the completion of the acquisition of renowned data warehouse company, Netezza Corp. as previously announced by IBM on Sept. 20.

IBM acquired Netezza in an all cash transaction of $1.70 billion or $27 per share. Not surprisingly, acquisition-happy IBM has invested over $14 billion in 24 strategic acquisitions.