Here’s one way to bolster a business, and pick up some talented staffers in a tight hiring market.

Seattle supercomputer maker Cray announced Thursday that it has hired the majority of employees from Austin, Texas-based SystemFabricWorks, a company that’s described as a leader in “storage interconnect solutions and software.”

Joining Cray as part of the deal are former SystemFabricWorks CEO Bob Pearson; former vice president of business development Bill Boas; and a number of engineers who will add expertise to Cray’s Lustre-based storage solutions.

Interestingly, even with the defections, SystemFabricWorks plans to continue operating with a new management team.

“Expanding our team with some of the top storage and Infiniband engineering experts is an important step in continuing to drive Cray’s growth in the storage market,” said Barry Bolding, Cray’s vice president of storage and data management.

I wonder if Cray is moving on to the turf of its Seattle-based neighbor, data storage giant EMC/Isilon. Cray says that it has shipped some 50 petabytes of storage capacity this year, with its storage systems used by customers in the energy, government and academic segments. Earlier this year, the company said it plans to deliver a Sonexion storage system to the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.