SanDisk Buys SMART Storage, Invests in Panzura

Storage specialist SanDisk (SNDK) continues to diversify its offerings with an acquisition of SMART Storage Systems, and a strategic investment in cloud storage provider Panzura.

SMART Storage Systems

SanDisk announced a definitive agreement to acquire SMART Storage Systems, a developer of enterprise solid state drives (SSDs) based on the SATA and SAS storage protocols. The $307 million acquisition is expected to close in August, and approximately 250 employees of SMART Storage Systems will join SanDisk at the close of the transaction.

"SanDisk is excited to build upon its leadership position with its fourth acquisition in the enterprise storage market," said Sumit Sadana, executive vice president & chief strategy officer of SanDisk. "This acquisition enables SanDisk to address a $1.6 billion market opportunity in enterprise SATA products, and complements our strong enterprise SAS product portfolio. With this combination, SanDisk will have products qualified with six of the top seven storage OEMs worldwide."

Advancing its enterprise business momentum SanDisk will combine the benefits of SMART Storage Systems’ products, technology, and talent with the existing enterprise SSD and software product portfolios, vertical integration, scale, market reach and financial strength of SanDisk, to address fast-growing opportunities in enterprise storage. SMART's Guardian Technology extends the native endurance of NAND flash memory, while improving reliability.

Panzura Investment

SanDisk announced that its venture arm SanDisk Ventures, has invested in Panzura, a provider of flash-based network attached storage (NAS) solutions for enterprise companies. SanDisk participated in Panzura’s recent Series D funding round and joins Meritech Capital, Matrix Partners, Khosla Ventures, Opus Capital and Chevron Technology Ventures as Panzura backers. Panzura optimizes enterprise data storage management and distribution in the cloud, with a global cloud storage solution combines the flexibility, performance and productivity benefits of distributed storage with the manageability, security and cost benefits of centralized storage.

“Panzura’s innovative global NAS cloud infrastructure solution offers numerous benefits compared to traditional on-premise NAS offerings,” said Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief strategy officer of SanDisk. “Panzura is another excellent example of the important role flash memory is playing in the transformation of the enterprise.”