Want access to that exclusive club, with the long line and thousands of hopefuls?  You could just flash a few (hundred) dollars at the bouncer, buying your way in.  It won’t guarantee you’ll be the belle of the ball or even the most popular VIP in the club, but at least you’ve gotten in the door.  What you do from there is up to you.

It’s not entirely different for enterprises, who buy their way into new industries with an acquisition here or there.  And when it comes to social enterprise, networking and storage, we’ve seen quite a few acquisitions and partnerships from some of the wealthiest companies in the world.  Google took in Wildfire in their continued efforts to build a social branch to their search empire, while Oracle’s Xsigo buy took a swipe at Cisco in the networking space.

There was also the partnership between NetApp and Fusion-io, which puts both firms in a better position to make their mark on the storage market.  This is a pretty exclusive club Fusion-io and NetApp are getting into, teaming up to make the best impression possible.

Our top two features this week offer deep analysis on Google’s latest acquisition and NetApp and Fusion-io’s play in the larger storage wars, outlining the big picture as to how these companies intend to not only enter the club, but shut it down. Placed in the perspective of the larger industries of social enterprise and storage, there’s much more to these stories than meets the eye as Google and others have serious goals in mind for striking into new territory.

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