Another win for Apache Hadoop. WANdisco acquired AltoStor, a Silicon Valley-based big data startup, for $3.6 million in cash and another $1.5 million in cash that will exchange hands once the deal goes through. The full release can be found here.

WANdisco is publicly traded provider of clustering software that lists Disney, Wells Fargo, Lockheed and dozens of other high profile corporate names as clients. It’s also the biggest contributor to the Apache Subversion project, an open-source revision control system that helps developers maintain source code more effectively.

The acquisition of AltoStor gives the company a solid foothold in the big data market, as well as the talent it needs to pull it off.  Co-founder Konstantin Shvachko is assuming the role of CTO in the firm’s analytics business, while colleague Jagane Sundar will serve as the same team’s chief architect. Both Shvacko and Sundar are listed among the “core creators” of Hadoop and have held senior positions in Yahoo and eBay.

“The AltoStor acquisition will enable WANdisco to launch products quickly into the highly-lucrative Big Data market,” said WANdisco Chairman and CEO David Richards. “Combining our patented technology with AltoStor’s Big Data platform will provide us with a significant competitive advantage and provide organizations with a more reliable approach for managing big data. The support AltoStor’s founders have for the WANdisco story is an important part of this deal.”

A lot of vendors are warming up to big data, and some are even willing to invest millions in the technology to gain an edge over the competition. WANdisco earned itself a spot on this list, right alongside Appcelerator.

The mobile development firm bought out Nodeable earlier this month, a startup that developed a pre-processing solution that structures data before it enters Hadoop. The company open-sourced Nodeable’s solution right after announcement.