EMC announced its second purchase in a week Thursday with the acquisition of Interlink Group, which specializes in providing IT services around Microsoft software.

The storage giant is hoping the move will help beef up its Microsoft expertise in light of a recently expanded relationship with the software vendor.

On Monday, EMC revealed plans to buy data replication and protection software company Kashya for about US$153 million in cash.

This isn’t EMC’s first Microsoft-oriented buy. At the start of this year, the company acquired IT professional services firm Internosis, a provider of support and service for Microsoft applications.

In March, EMC and Microsoft said they’d extended an existing alliance so they could work together more closely on selling and delivering their products to customers. Their particular focus was on software, storage and services that could help users more easily manage data stored in Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2003 groupware and its SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition database software.

Privately held Interlink has its headquarters in Englewood, Colo., and employs about 180 staff. The company has specific skills in relation to Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM software.

Interlink becomes part of EMC’s 9,000-strong professional service business unit, which is known as EMC Technology Solutions.

EMC did not reveal financial details of the deal.

-China Martens, IDG News Service

For related news coverage, read EMC Buys Storage Software Provider Kashya for $153M.

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