Western Digital Acquires VeloBit – Building SSD Portfolio

Western Digital has acquired privately held VeloBit, a provider of high-performance storage I/O optimization software. VeloBit will be fully integrated into HGST, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western Digital. Headquartered in Lincoln, MA, VeloBit enhances storage system performance with its software technology by adding a transparent acceleration layer utilizing solid state drives (SSDs). Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. VeloBit’s SSD caching software dramatically accelerates applications and increases server density by enabling higher I/O performance, lower latency, and more efficient usage of processor and storage resources.

Western Digital announced last month that they entered into an agreement to acquire STEC for approximately $340 million in cash. WD is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance what appears to be both their enterprise SSD and consumer SSD product lines. It is clear that Solid state storage in both market spaces will be crucial for future success in the storage market and clearly WD is making some high-dollar strategic moves now to ensure the future success of the company. Will more acquisitions be coming from WD?