NetApp has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SolidFire for $US870 million in cash, regarded as a leader in all-flash storage systems.
Founded in 2010, SolidFire builds all-flash storage systems for the next-generation data centre, meaning NetApp will now have all-flash offerings that address each of the three largest All-Flash Array market segments.
In addition, SolidFire is widely regarded as an active leader in the cloud community with extensive integrated storage management capabilities with OpenStack, VMware, and other cloud frameworks.
“This acquisition will benefit current and future customers looking to gain the benefits of web-scale cloud providers for their own data centres,” says George Kurian, CEO, NetApp.
“SolidFire combines the performance and economics of all-flash storage with a web-scale architecture that radically simplifies data centre operations and enables rapid deployments of new applications.
“We look forward to extending NetApp’s flash leadership with the SolidFire team, products and partner ecosystem, and to accelerating flash adoption through NetApp’s large partner and customer base.”
Over time, Kurian says SolidFire products will be incorporated into NetApp’s data fabric strategy, delivering data management across flash, disk and cloud resources.
Following the close of the transaction, which is anticipated to occur in NetApp’s fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2016, subject to customary closing conditions, SolidFire CEO, Dave Wright, will lead the SolidFire product line within NetApp’s product operations.
“Both SolidFire and NetApp have deep technical, customer-centric cultures, which are focused on delivering innovations that give customers a competitive advantage,” Wright adds.
“We look forward to enhancing NetApp’s position within the all-flash array market while helping NetApp and SolidFire customers and partners succeed.”
