Quantum last week acquired Benchmark Storage, a company that operates in the same market as the firm but brings with it a range of new products that will enable Quantum to expend its offerings quite considerably. The move hasn't exactly sent reverberations around the industry but it is a further sign of consolidation in an industry that continues to find itself at the core of tech spending.

Quantum, which has established itself as something of a bastion of Tape Drives, is expected to pay as much as 1 million for Benchmark along with an additional settlement of 13.1 million shares - valued today at .44. Quantum, in fact, already holds a 20% stake in Benchmark, so further payments will be made to the remaining private equity holders if certain targets are met over the next year.

In return for this 'aggressive action,' Quantum will gain a diverse range of DLTtape solutions including a batch of drives, autoloaders and media. That might not sound particularly exciting but once they're added to Quantum's existing portfolio it gives the firm quite some reach. It's tape drives, for instance, will now be able to offer a range from 80Gb to 320Gb of compressed capacity. It will do no harm to the OEM and library relationships that Quantum has established either - with the likes of Dell, IBM and Tandberg Data.

Quite what the acquisition will do to Quantum's market position however is another matter. For some time now Quantum, in presumably the same way as Benchmark, has been very much a middle tier DLTtape supplier. It's not a market leader, which is not to cast any doubt about the quality of its products, but it's not exactly floundering either. The acquisition of Benchmark, therefore, will undoubtedly buoy its position somewhat. In the short term though it will not put it ahead of the pack. This is pure consolidation at its best.

The leaders in the tape space are bigger players like ATL, StorageTek and Overland which between them have dominated the tape landscape for many years. Overland, for instance, is pretty much the de facto tape supplier for HP, which promptly re-badges and resells, giving it strong inroads into the enterprise - although it should be hoping to reduce its reliance on HP sales. StorageTek, on the other hand, is broadening its offerings with storage resource management software, giving it an extra edge in the tape space. Quantum has some work to do before it can tackle any of these players.

One further issue that the Quantum acquisition throws up is: Tape. The questions surrounding tape, and its seemingly limitless capacity to survive in an industry that seems evermore besotted with disk, are relevant. Tape is losing favour but only to a nominal degree. It's demise has been predicted more often than a war with Saddam as soon as Bush looked like getting into the White House. But, take it from us, tape isn't going anywhere. It's a market with resilience and the simple reason for that is tape can and still does play a major role in both security and cost containment within the IT department. Considering that, Quantum has probably just played a very nice hand.