DataDirect Networks

Founded in 1998, DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a provider of large storage systems for unstructured data and big data environments. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA, has about 650 employees,[1] and in 2011 called itself the largest privately held information storage company.[2]

DDN provides storage for applications such as cloud storage services, supercomputing, life sciences and genomics, seismic processing, financial service trade and risk analysis, film production, live television broadcast, manufacturing, and video surveillance. Competition includes EMC Corporation, NetApp, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and others.[3]

History

The company was founded in 1988 under the name MegaDrive Systems. MegaDrive merged with ImpactData, in 1998, to create DataDirect Networks.[3] Alex Bouzari is the company’s CEO, chairman and co-founder.[4] Paul Bloch is president and co-founder.

DDN completed a $9.9 million round of venture capital financing in October 2001 with ClearLight Partners LLC and Digital Coast Ventures.[5] In 2002, the company ended its relationship with its venture capital financiers.[6]

DDN created DataDirect Networks Federal, LLC, in 2005 - formalizing a team which holds the necessary clearances to support the company’s focus on the U.S. government and intelligence community.[7]

In 2008, DDN reported that it had exceeded $100 million in annual revenue and claimed to provide storage systems for 48 of the top 100 supercomputers – with customers including Argonne National Laboratory and the NASA Ames Research Center.[8] In 2011, DDN reported that it had exceeded the $200M annual revenue mark,[9] and was reported to be the world's largest privately held storage company, based on 2009 revenues.[10] In 2013, the company built the storage system for Titan supercomputer.[11] DDN announced in 2016 that it powered 70 percent of the top 500 supercomputers worldwide, up from 67 percent in 2015.[12]

Products

The company carries products that provide block, parallel file and object storage. Block storage devices store data in chunks with a maximum fixed length. Parallel file systems spread the data across more than one storage device to provide redundancy and increase performance. Object file systems separate the file metadata information from the rest of the file data and store them in separate devices. The Lustre and Spectrum Scale file system is an example of a parallel file system and is supported by DDN’s products, and the InfiniBand communications link is supported by some DDN systems.

The company also provides a storage management tool to configure and monitor DDN storage devices as well as a line of flash storage appliances. For example, DDN's Infinite Memory Engine (IME), a flash-native data cache, allows data to reside next to compute in a very fast, shared pool of non-volatile memory (NVM).[13]

Notable Awards and Achievements

2008:

Frost & Sullivan awards DDN its World Disk Storage for Digital Media Market Product Differentiation Innovation Award.[14]

2009:

Frost & Sullivan awards DDN its World Disk Storage for Best Practice For Video Surveillance Capture & Archive.[15]

2010:

DDN announces inclusion in Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™.[16]

2011:

DDN announces that it has been selected for its seventh HPCWire award, as its Storage Fusion Architecture wins an Editors' Choice Award in the category of Best HPC Storage Product or Technology.[17]

Inc. Magazine names DDN as the fastest growing $100M+ computer company, marking its second year of inclusion on the Inc. 500|5000 list.[18]

2012:

DDN’s In-Storage Processing™ named among the Top 6 Technologies to Watch in 2012 by Infostor.[19]

DDN CEO, Alex Bouzari, selected by HPC Wire as one of 2012’s “People To Watch”[20]

The company is named America's fastest growing $200M+ privately held computer company by Inc. Magazine.[21]

2013:

In 2013 DDN was recognized by the Los Angeles Business Journal as the fastest growing technology company over $100 million for the 3rd year in a row.[22]

DDN won several HPCWire Magazine awards,[23] ranging from Top Supercomputing Achievement to Best HPC Storage Product or Technology.[24]

2014:

The company won the National Association of Broadcasters’ (NAB’s) Best of Show Award for its WOS object storage product.[25]

IDC MarketScape named DDN as a leader in the object-based storage market.[26]

DDN won six of the prestigious HPCwire awards, including Best Use of HPC in the Gas and Oil Industry, Best Application of Big Data in HPC (SFA12K), Best Use of HPC Application in Manufacturing (Readers and Editors), Best HPC Storage Product or Technology (WOS), and Top Five New Products or Technologies to Watch (IME).[27]

2015:

DDN was once again honored to win several HPCwire awards, including Best Storage Product or Technology (Readers and Editors), Best Use of HPC in Automotive (Readers), Best Use of HPC in Manufacturing (Editors), Best Use of HPC in Financial Services (Editors), Best Use of High Performance Data Analytics (Editors), and Best HPC Collaboration between Academia and Industry (Editors).[28]

DDN won the Best in Video Surveillance Data Storage Award for its GS7K appliance at the SIA New Product Showcase.[29]

DDN's Storage Fusion Xcelerator Cache Accelerator won a Visionary Products Award in the "Professional Class System" category.[30]

2016:

The company won the SVC Storage Company of the Year Award.[31]

IDC MarketScape named DDN a Global Leader in Object Storage for the fourth year.[32]

DDN won the Storage Visions Product Award in the Professional Class Storage category for its WOS 360 Version 2.0 Object Storage Software.[33]

The company was honored to be named Object Storage Vendor the Year at the UK Storage Awards.[34]

DDN's FlashScale was recognized as the Golden Bridge Award winner.[35]

DDN was selected as Best Big Data Innovator: Data Management in the inaugural Datanami Choice Awards.[36]

The company was awarded four of the coveted HPCwire Choice Awards, including Best HPC Storage Product or Technology (Editors), Best HPC Storage Product or Technology (Readers), Best HPC Collaboration between Academia and Industry (Readers), and Best Application of HPC in Entertainment (Editors).[37]

References

  1. ↑ Donato-Weinstein, N.: “DataDirect plugs into Santa Clara,” Silicon Valley Business Journal, April 22, 2013]
  2. ↑ Dave Raffo (September 20, 2011). "DataDirect Networks discusses new system, IBM relationship". Storage Soup. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  3. 1 2 Chris Mellor (March 15, 2013). "Private billion buck HPC player? You're going to have to go public - and SOON". The Register. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ “Exclusive Interview of Alex Bouzari, CEO of DataDirect Networks,” StorageNewsletter, Jan 17, 2011]
  5. ↑ "DataDirect Networks Closes Series A Funding Round Of US Dollars 9.9 Million". Press release. DataDirect Networks. October 1, 2001. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  6. ↑ "How To Defend Your Dream Against All Odds: Alex Bouzari, CEO of DataDirect Networks". One Million by One Million Blog. October 16, 2011. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  7. ↑ “DataDirect Networks Creates DataDirect Networks Federal, LLC. to Manage Its Significant Expansion in Government Markets ,” PR Newswire, June 6, 2005]
  8. ↑ "Company Profile, DataDirect Networoks" (PDF). Taneja Group. September 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 21, 2010.
  9. ↑ Baltazar, H.: “DataDirect accelerates sales past $200m plateau, eyes analytics,” 451 Research, July 28, 2011]
  10. ↑ Raffo, D.: “DataDirect Networks called No. 1 among private storage vendors,” Storage Soup , Jan 12, 2011]
  11. ↑ James Plafke (April 16, 2013). "Titan supercomputer will have world’s fastest storage at 1.4TB/s". Extreme Tech. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  12. ↑ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/07/ddn_ups_top_500_supercomputer_showing/
  13. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-volatile_memory
  14. ↑ “2008 World Disk Storage for Digital Media Market Product Differentiation Innovation Award,” Frost & Sullivan, 2008]
  15. ↑ “DataDirect Networks Scalable Storage Technology Recognized by Leading Storage Analyst as a Best Practice for Video Surveillance Capture & Archive,” Market Wired, 2009]
  16. ↑ “Surge in Demand for Dynamic Content Infrastructure Propels DataDirect Networks Into Deloitte's Technology Fast 500(TM),” TMCnet, 2010]
  17. ↑ “2011 Annual HPCwire Readers Choice Awards,” HPCwire, Nov 15, 2011]
  18. ↑ “Top Computer Hardware Companies on the 2011 Inc. 5000,” Inc. Magazine, 2011]
  19. ↑ Robb, D.: “6 Storage Networking Trends to Watch in 2012,” InfoStor, Dec 14, 2011]
  20. ↑ Hyman, J.: “People to Watch 2012,” HPCwire, 2012]
  21. ↑ “DataDirect Networks is named America's fastest growing $200M+ privately held computer company by Inc. Magazine,” Primeur Magazine, Sept 6, 2012]
  22. ↑ “Big Data Leader DataDirect Networks (DDN) Recognized as Fastest Growing Technology Company Over $100 Million on Los Angeles Business Journal’s List for Third Year in a Row,” Backup Review, Jan, 2013]
  23. ↑ “DataDirect Networks Big Data Storage Products Earn Top Honors with Unprecedented Six HPCwire Readers' and Editors' Choice Awards,” MarketWatch, Nov 19, 2013]
  24. ↑ https://www.hpcwire.com/2013-annual-hpcwire-readers-choice-awards/
  25. ↑ Grotticelli, M.: “And the Winners of NewBay Media’s 2014 Best of Show Awards Presented by 'Video Edge' Magazine Are ...,” Video Edge, May 9, 2014]
  26. ↑ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/06/idc_shows_emcs_object_presence_shrinking/
  27. ↑ https://www.hpcwire.com/2014-hpcwire-readers-choice-awards/
  28. ↑ https://www.hpcwire.com/2015-hpcwire-readers-choice-awards/
  29. ↑ https://www.securityindustry.org/Pages/PressReleases/2015/MorphoWAVE-from-Safran-Morpho-Named-Best-New-Product-at-SIA%E2%80%99s-2015-New-Product-Showcase.aspx
  30. ↑ https://www.storagevisions.com/2015Awards.htm
  31. ↑ "SVC Awards". www.svcawards.com. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  32. ↑ "DDN Named a Global Leader in Object Storage by IDC - DDN.com". DDN.com. 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2016-12-25.
  33. ↑ https://www.storagevisions.com/Press%20Releases/sv16rel18%20010416r1.htm
  34. ↑ http://www.storagemagazine.co.uk/storageawards/?page=winners2016
  35. ↑ http://www.goldenbridgeawards.com/world/
  36. ↑ https://www.datanami.com/2016-readers-choice-awards/
  37. ↑ https://www.hpcwire.com/2016-hpcwire-readers-choice-awards/
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