Dive Brief:

• NetApp says it is acquiring startup SolidFire for $870 million, Computer World reports.
• The purchase will give NetApp some traction in the fast-growing market for scale-out flash storage.
• SolidFire's products ultimately will allow NetApp to offer data management across flash, disk and cloud, the company said.

Dive Insight:

SolidFire makes all-flash systems that can scale out to as much as 1.9 petabytes of capacity. Scale-out architectures like SolidFire's are designed to give enterprises greater flexibility in building out data centers and lowering their costs. NetApp will target SolidFire's products at customers building next-generation web-scale infrastructure.

The deal is expected to close during NetApp's fiscal fourth quarter. Cisco Systems reportedly considered acquiring SolidFire as well.