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DataDirect Networks

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Overview

DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a privately held data storage company headquartered in Chatsworth, California, USA. Founded in 1998, DDN has established itself as a leader in high-performance storage solutions for data-intensive applications. History and Founding: DDN was formed through the merger of MegaDrive and ImpactData. The company's co-founders, Alex Bouzari (CEO and Chairman) and Paul Bloch (President), continue to lead the organization. Products and Solutions: DDN specializes in storage systems for unstructured data and big data applications, particularly in AI, analytics, and high-performance computing (HPC). Their product lineup includes:

  • Data management solutions
  • Network-attached storage (NAS)
  • Block data storage
  • Clustered file systems
  • Object storage These solutions offer low latency, high capacity, and sustained throughput for data-intensive applications. Market Presence: DDN serves over 11,000 customers across enterprise, government, and academia sectors in more than 50 countries. Notable clients include NASA, Nvidia, Argonne National Laboratory, and leading financial services firms. Financial Performance: In 2020, DDN reported annual revenues of $400 million, marking its highest profitability and fifth consecutive year of growth. Between 2018 and 2020, the company experienced a 52% revenue increase. Strategic Acquisitions: DDN has expanded its capabilities through key acquisitions, including:
  • Lustre filesystem storage team from Intel (2018)
  • Tintri, a virtualization-focused storage company (2018)
  • Nexenta, a software-defined storage vendor (2019)
  • IntelliFlash division from Western Digital (2019) Innovation and R&D: With approximately two-thirds of its staff in R&D and customer-facing technical roles, DDN has increased its R&D budget by 65% between 2018 and 2020. The company holds over 150 patents and continues to innovate in data intelligence and storage solutions. AI and HPC Focus: DDN is particularly renowned for accelerating AI and HPC workloads. Its Data Intelligence Platform handles massive data sets from edge to core to cloud, enabling real-time analysis and advanced learning. DDN's solutions support over 500,000 GPUs, delivering 100% GPU utilization and faster AI application acceleration. In summary, DataDirect Networks is a leading provider of high-performance storage solutions, with a strong global presence and a commitment to innovation in AI, HPC, and data-intensive applications.

Leadership Team

DataDirect Networks (DDN) is led by an experienced executive team that drives the company's strategic direction, innovation, and global operations. Key members include: Alex Bouzari - CEO, Chairman, and Co-Founder With over 20 years of experience in the storage industry, Bouzari has a background in running profitable, fast-growth technology companies. He holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Engineering and Economics from Caltech, with graduate studies at MIT and Stanford University. Paul Bloch - President and Co-Founder Bloch co-founded DDN with Alex Bouzari and has been instrumental in the company's focus on high-speed disk storage systems and HPC-class storage solutions. Sven Oehme - Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Based in Parker, Colorado, Oehme plays a crucial role in shaping the company's technical direction. Ian Angelo - CFO & COO Angelo serves as both Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, bringing diverse experience from roles at Cisco and within DDN. Meredyth Jensen - Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Joining DDN in January 2022, Jensen brings extensive experience in brand marketing and strategic communications from her previous role at RGP, a global consulting firm. She is responsible for guiding DDN's brand positioning and industry thought leadership. Additional senior executives include:

  • Senior Vice President of Global Sales
  • Vice President of Worldwide Pre-Sale
  • Senior Vice Presidents in various product and operational roles This leadership team is responsible for setting strategic direction, overseeing global operations, driving innovation in large storage systems for unstructured and big data environments, and ensuring alignment across all functions to deliver value to customers and maintain market leadership.

History

DataDirect Networks (DDN) has a rich history spanning over 25 years, marked by significant milestones, innovations, and growth: Formation and Early Years:

  • Founded in 1998 through the merger of MegaDrive and ImpactData
  • Co-founded by Alex Bouzari and Paul Bloch, who remain active as CEO and President, respectively Initial Growth and Focus:
  • Early focus on high-speed disk storage systems for high-performance computing (HPC) environments
  • By 2008, DDN had delivered storage systems to prominent supercomputers at NASA and Nvidia Financial Milestones:
  • 2001: Completed a $9.9 million venture capital financing round
  • 2002: Ended relationship with venture capital financiers
  • 2008: Exceeded $100 million in annual revenue
  • 2011: Reported annual revenues exceeding $200 million Challenges and Restructuring:
  • Early 2010s: Faced challenges including declining revenues and executive departures
  • 2013: Announced Infinite Memory Engine technology despite revenue drop to around $200 million Acquisitions and Expansion:
  • 2016: Powered 70% of the top 500 supercomputers
  • 2018: Acquired Lustre filesystem storage team from Intel and Tintri
  • 2019: Acquired Nexenta and IntelliFlash division from Western Digital Recent Success and Growth:
  • 2020: Achieved record-breaking annual revenue of $400 million
  • Reported 52% revenue growth from 2018 to 2020
  • Operates in 20 countries with customers in over 50 countries
  • Employs around 1,000 people Technological Leadership:
  • Provides storage systems for unstructured data and big data applications
  • Solutions deployed by over 11,000 customers across various sectors
  • Focuses on AI, analytics, HPC, cloud storage services, life sciences, and genomics Throughout its history, DDN has demonstrated resilience, innovation, and consistent growth, solidifying its position as a global leader in intelligent infrastructure and data storage solutions.

Products & Solutions

DataDirect Networks (DDN) offers a comprehensive range of products and solutions tailored for managing and optimizing large-scale data storage in high-performance environments such as artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC), and big data analytics. EXAScaler – Lustre Storage:

  • Features the Lustre file system, known for high IOPS performance and low latency
  • Includes enterprise features like encryption for in-flight and at-rest data, isolated data access for secure multi-tenancy, and GPU integration using NVIDIA GPU Direct protocols
  • Ideal for HPC, AI, and data analytics workloads, scaling to hundreds of petabytes A³I – DDN Storage for AI:
  • Specifically designed for AI workloads
  • Validated with NVIDIA DGX POD and SuperPOD, utilizing NVIDIA GPU Direct data protocols
  • Provides parallel performance and low latency across large datasets
  • Suitable for high IOPS and random data access patterns characteristic of AI applications DDN SFA Solutions – Block Storage:
  • High-performance block storage chassis offering high density storage (up to 13PB in a single rack)
  • Delivers up to 3.2 million IOPS and 90GB/s from a single 4RU appliance
  • Features optimized PCIe fabric and back-plane for fast, low-latency data access
  • Includes software-defined capabilities like SFA Declustered RAID to improve rebuild times Tintri and DDN Intelliflash – Enterprise Storage Solutions:
  • Tintri: Offers all-flash arrays (T7000 range) with NVMe flash storage, scalable from 20TB to 40PB
  • Optimized for virtual machine (VM) use, supporting various hypervisors
  • Intelliflash: Hybrid SSD/HDD arrays optimizing performance and cost for enterprise workloads and mid-range AI applications Cloud Services:
  • Provides solutions for Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and NVIDIA Cloud Partners (NCPs)
  • Enables seamless scalability for AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) and maximizes GPU performance
  • Offers platforms like EXAScaler Cloud on AWS and GCP for optimized performance and cost-efficiency Data Intelligence Platform:
  • Comprehensive software infrastructure designed to accelerate data-intensive computing
  • Includes state-of-the-art hardware systems, flexible software-defined storage solutions, and reference architectures
  • Engineered for peak performance, seamless cloud integration, and scalable efficiency
  • Suitable for various industries including life sciences, financial services, and government sectors Security and Scalability:
  • Emphasizes robust data protection and security, including encryption and isolated data access
  • Designed to scale limitlessly without losing performance
  • Optimized for multi-tenant environments
  • Offers significant advantages in terms of performance, security, and cost-efficiency DDN's products and solutions are tailored to meet the demanding requirements of modern data-intensive applications, ensuring high performance, scalability, and security across various industries and use cases.

Core Technology

DataDirect Networks (DDN) specializes in high-performance storage and data management solutions, particularly for AI, High-Performance Computing (HPC), and other data-intensive applications. Key aspects of DDN's core technology include: Shared Parallel Architecture:

  • Built around a shared parallel architecture with network optimization and intelligent client
  • Provides superior performance, scalability, security, and reliability
  • Extends multiple parallel data paths from drives to customer applications EXAScaler Platform:
  • Delivers high-performance, low-latency, and massive concurrency in transactions
  • Uses EXAScaler network protocol (lnet) for maximum performance
  • Supports other protocols like NFS, SMB, or S3
  • Simplifies deployments in multi-network environments
  • Implements Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) between client computers and storage servers AI400X2 and AI200X2 Appliances:
  • Turnkey appliances optimized for intensive AI, analytics, and HPC workloads
  • Provide high throughput (up to 90 GB/s and over 3 million IOPS)
  • Offer scalable performance and flexible growth
  • Available in all-NVMe and hybrid NVMe/HDD configurations Integration with NVIDIA:
  • Deep integration with NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform
  • Enhances performance for AI and HPC workloads
  • Allows for significant performance boosts, efficient data flow, and optimized data handling in AI models DataPath Technology:
  • Ensures efficient data movement without straining hardware, power, cooling, or network resources
  • Maximizes data movement and reduces latency
  • Ideal for large language models and other AI applications Enterprise-Ready Features:
  • Includes client-side compression, enhanced multi-tenancy, and advanced security measures
  • Streamlines data management and optimizes performance
  • Ensures secure data segregation and operational integrity Data Intelligence Platform:
  • Comprehensive platform that transforms raw data into actionable insights
  • Accelerates efficiency and reduces data center footprint
  • Enhances data access and insight
  • Crucial component for AI optimization and business innovation DDN's core technology is designed to provide high-performance, scalable, and secure data storage and management solutions optimized for the most demanding AI and HPC applications, offering a comprehensive suite of features to meet the needs of data-intensive industries.

Industry Peers

DataDirect Networks (DDN) operates in the data storage and management industry, competing with several notable companies. Key competitors and alternatives include: Primary Competitors:

  1. Minio: Known for cloud-native object storage
  2. Cloudian: Specializes in object storage solutions for unstructured data
  3. SwiftStack: Provides software-defined storage solutions
  4. Quantum: Focuses on managing and preserving unstructured data with high-performance platforms Other Notable Competitors:
  5. Activeloop: Specializes in data management and artificial intelligence, particularly for deep learning and large language models
  6. Model9: Offers software-only technology for modernizing data management and business intelligence in large enterprises
  7. JuiceFS: A high-performance, cloud-native distributed file system
  8. Pure Storage: Provides data storage solutions with a cloud experience, managing data usage and control
  9. NetApp: Offers a variety of cloud data services, including cloud storage, backup, and disaster recovery
  10. Weka: Provides a software-defined, cloud-native data platform for high-performance and low-latency data management
  11. Hitachi Vantara: Specializes in data storage and analytics, DataOps, IoT, cloud, and consulting services
  12. Tintri: Focuses on data management solutions for virtualized workloads, optimizing database performance and providing data protection These companies compete with DDN in providing advanced data storage, management, and analytics solutions to various industries, including:
  • Financial services
  • Healthcare
  • Life sciences
  • Manufacturing
  • Government sectors Each competitor brings unique strengths to the market, offering a range of solutions from object storage and software-defined systems to specialized AI and cloud-native platforms. This competitive landscape drives innovation in the industry, pushing companies to continually improve their offerings to meet the evolving needs of data-intensive organizations.

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