Personal computer maker, Dell Inc yesterday said that it has agreed to buy start-up firm Ocarina Networks that specialises in data storage optimisation for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2007 by Murli Thirumale and Goutham Rao, the San Jose, California-based privately-held Ocarina Networks sell devices designed to reduce data footprints with file-aware storage optimisation.

Their flagship product, the Ocarina Appliance / Reader, released in April 2008, uses patented data compression techniques incorporating such methods as record linkage and context-based lossless data compression.

Ocarina's compression and dedupe technology reduces data dramatically, freeing up 30-75 per cent of existing storage capacity resulting in significant capital expenditure and operational savings.

In 2007, Ocarina received $12 million in funding from private equity firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Highland Capital Partners and an additional $20 million from the same investors and JAFCO Ventures in 2009.

By acquiring Ocarina, Texas-based Dell plans to have increased efficiency with a goal of radically reducing data management costs. These savings can help Dell customers make room in their budgets for other strategic investments to help their business succeed.

Dell expects to complete the acquisition by the end of the month and post closing, Dell plans to maintain and invest in additional engineering and sales capability.

''Ocarina provides an important component of our data management portfolio and our EqualLogic ecosystem to provide customers the best value for their IT investments.'' said Brad Anderson, Dell senior vice president, Enterprise Product Group.

''Content-aware deduplication allows us to provide a true global approach to deduplication across the datacenter and has a tremendous ripple effect of cost savings that frees up budgets for strategic investments,'' he added.

''This is a great opportunity for the Ocarina technology, and for Ocarina customers and partners. Combining Ocarina's capability with Dell's leading storage portfolio, we plan to move the Ocarina solution well beyond what you've seen with other deduplication offerings to include 'end-to-end' optimisation,'' said Thirumale, CEO of Ocarina.