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Western Digital: We're just about DDN with these data centre systems

American drive-slinger Western Digital has pulled out of the storage systems business, telling the world last night that it is selling the IntelliFlash array unit to DDN.

WD also has plans to exit its ActiveScale archival storage array business, it confirmed, saying that keeping either unit on board would require "focus and investment" the business was not prepared to expend.

Mike Cordano, WD COO, said in a prepared statement: "Scaling and accelerating growth opportunities for IntelliFlash and ActiveScale will require additional management focus and investment to ensure long-term success."

This unexpected reversal comes just two years after Western Dig swallowed IntelliFlash when it acquired Tegile in August 2017 for an undisclosed sum. As recently as July this year WD extended IntelliFlash capabilities with entry-level NVMe models, a higher capacity SAS array, live dataset migration and an S3 connector.

WD gets more than 80 per cent of its revenues from selling disk drives and SSDs to OEMs and consumers, where it faces limited competition.

A WD statement explained:

Western Digital's strategic intention is to exit Storage Systems, which consists of the IntelliFlash and ActiveScale businesses. The company is exploring strategic options for ActiveScale. These actions will allow Western Digital to optimize its Data Center Systems portfolio around its core Storage Platforms business, which includes the OpenFlex platform and fabric-attached storage technologies.

Alex Bouzari, CEO and co-founder of DDN, aka DataDirect Networks, emitted this canned quote: "We are delighted to add Western Digital's high-performance enterprise hybrid, all flash and NVMe solutions to DDN's... data management at scale product portfolio."

IntelliFlash staff will join DDN, which now has more than 10,000 customers worldwide. WD and DDN will work together to transition customers, with ongoing product availability and support continuity. DDN is understood to be planning to invest in an accelerated roadmap of the IntelliFlash line.

The deal includes a mutual global sourcing agreement in which Western Digital will become a customer of IntelliFlash from DDN and a preferred HDD and SSD supplier to DDN, but no financial numbers were disclosed by the pair.

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