Editor’s note: Krista Macomber is an analyst with Technology Business Research. She analyzes Red Hat’s acquisition last week of Inktank.

HAMPTON, N.H. - Inktank rounds out Red Hat’s software-defined storage capabilities, and as a result will serve as a pillar to Red Hat’s OpenStack-led growth.

Last week, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) announced its intent to acquire open-source software-defined storage provider Inktank to strengthen OpenStack tie-ins to its corporate hybrid cloud and software-defined storage strategies.

Inktank’s Ceph Enterprise platform positions Red Hat to enable the full range of software-defined object, block and file storage on commodity hardware — building on Red Hat’s October 2011 acquisition of open-source scale-out public and private cloud storage platform provider Gluster.

Customers are increasingly adopting software-defined storage platforms to improve scalability and centralize management while mitigating the security and integration risks associated with public cloud delivery models.

Ceph is rapidly gaining traction as a leading platform for OpenStack through its multi-protocol, heterogeneous support. Inktank estimates that data stored on Ceph is expected to grow tenfold by the end of 2014.

Although this is likely from a small base, TBR expects rapid growth to unstructured data will accelerate adoption of software-defined storage platforms during this timeframe — spurring vendors ranging from Inktank to EMC, with its ScaleIO acquisition, to invest heavily in the space. Multiplatform competitors such as EMC have large cash reserves to spend on R&D and niche acquisitions, and they go to market with a full range of hardware, software and services capabilities.

However, TBR views Inktank, armed with Ceph, as well-positioned to be a disruptor in the space — particularly with the backing of OpenStack leader Red Hat.

The integration of Ceph will enable Red Hat to go to market with complete software-defined storage capabilities, and folding Ceph into Red Hat’s distribution and broader OpenStack strategy will accelerate development and professionalization of the platform.

Many of Inktank’s key existing partnerships (Dell and Alcatel-Lucent) and enterprise customers such as CERN mesh with RedHat’s own — which TBR believes bodes well for targeted technology, ecosystem and go-to-market integration.

(C) Technology Business Research