Seagate Technology PLC (STX), SanDisk Corporation (SNDK): Western Digital Corp. (WDC)’s Strategic Investment: A Big Deal?

Western Digital’s strategic investment in Skyera is significant

Skyera wants to offer big-enterprise companies super-fast storage for their data-centers on the promise that its storage is affordable, has low power consumption, and will greatly boost software performance. Skyera’s skyHawk series of enterprise solid-state storage systems, priced at an industry breakthrough price point of less than $3 per gigabyte, marks the first time that the latest generation 19/20nm solid-state technology can be used as a direct replacement for traditional enterprise hard disk-based systems.

With cloud storage slowly becoming the primary mode of storage for enterprise customers, the need for storage will shift from local servers to cloud servers operated by data-centers. Gartner projects the market for enterprise flash storage will grow from $393 million in 2012 to about $4.2 billion in 2016, so betting on this type of service isn’t a bad idea. Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC)’s strategic investment in Skyera is aimed at gaining access to Skyera’s solid-state products.

The Bottom Line

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ:WDC)’s strategic interest in Skyera is significant for the long-term viability of the company’s digital storage business. With its competitors already registering substantial progress in the SSD game, Western Digital’s recent initiative will strengthen the company’s foray into the solid-state market.

The article Western Digital’s Strategic Investment: A Big Deal? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anindya Batabyal.

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