NetApp to buy flash storage startup SolidFire for $870M

NetApp is acquiring startup SolidFire for US$870 million cash for a foothold in the fast-growing market for scale-out flash storage.SolidFire's all-flash systems will let enterprises take advantage of the scale and cost advantages enjoyed by Web-scale companies with distributed data-center architectures, NetApp said. SolidFire, based in Boulder, Colorado, makes all-flash systems that can scale out to as much as 1.9 petabytes of capacity.The deal is expected to close during NetApp's fiscal fourth