Dive Brief:

• Symantec Corp. announced it is selling Veritas, its data storage business, to a group led by Carlyle Group LP for $8 billion.

• The deal is expected to close by Jan. 1, 2016.

• Revenue from Veritas, which represents almost 40% of Symantec's total revenue, declined 10% in the first quarter.

Dive Insight:

Slowing demand for storage and data management software has translated to weak sales for Symantec and lowered the value of Veritas, which Symantec bought for $13.5 billion in 2005.

The sale of Veritas provides further evidence that businesses are looking for smarter storage solutions. While conventional DAS, NAS and SAN storage vendors are struggling, companies that provide "Storage as a Service" solutions appear to be gaining ground.

For example, Tintri, which builds smart storage that sees, learns and adapts from the workloads running around and upon it, announced a $125 million fundraising round last week.