Western Digital continues SSD efforts, acquires Virident

IDG News Service - Western Digital is continuing its acquisition spree of flash storage companies, announcing a definitive agreement to buy enterprise solid-state drive (SSD) vendor Virident for $685 million.

Virident's operations will be integrated into WD's HGST (previously called Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) subsidiary, which was acquired from Hitachi. Virident is best known for its FlashMax range of products, which include SSDs that can function as server-side memory or long-term storage, and also related software that can manage SSD storage resources in data centers.

WD is well-known for its hard drive offerings, but has been on an acquisition spree as it expands into the SSD market. Earlier this year, WD invested $51 million in Skyera, which develops energy-efficient storage systems with SSDs, and also acquired Velobit, which makes SSD optimization software, for an undisclosed amount. The company in July acquired SSD maker STEC for $340 million. WD also offers its own SSDs and has also announced consumer-grade solid-state hybrid drives that combine hard drives and SSDs.

Virident's acquisitions will aid WD's strategy to deliver highly integrated server-based storage products to data centers, said Mike Cordano, HGST president, in a statement.

SSDs are being increasingly used in the enterprise as cache, memory and cold storage. Industry observers feel the enterprise SSD market has yet to mature, as a lot of storage is still based on spinning disks like hard drives, which can be slower and more power-hungry.

The smaller size of SSDs can also provide more storage in fewer servers, and can run in-memory database applications as an alternative to DRAM. For example, Facebook replaced DRAM with flash memory in a server called McDipper, and is also using SSDs for long-term cold storage. SSD adoption is also growing as flash storage becomes cheaper and more durable.

WD said the acquisition of Virident is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Agam Shah covers PCs, tablets, servers, chips and semiconductors for IDG News Service. Follow Agam on Twitter at @agamsh. Agam's e-mail address is agam_shah@idg.com

Reprinted with permission from IDG.net. Story copyright 2012 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

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Report: NSA defeats many encryption efforts

The U.S. National Security Agency has been circumventing many online encryption efforts through a combination of supercomputers, back doors built into technology products, court orders and other efforts, according to a new report from The New York Times and ProPublica.

The NSA has cracked much of the encryption that protects global commerce, banking, trade secrets and medical records, according to the report, which cites documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The NSA has invested billions of dollars in efforts to defeat encryption since 2000, according to the report.

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In addition to deploying supercomputers to crack encryption, the NSA has worked with U.S. and foreign technology companies to build entry points into their products, the report said. The agency spends more than $250 million a year on its Sigint Enabling Project, which engages the IT industry in an effort to get companies to make their commercial products "exploitable," the report said, citing documents from Snowden.

The report did not name companies that have cooperated with the NSA.

Representatives of the NSA and the U.S. Office of Director of National Intelligence didn't immediately respond to a request for comments on the news report.

In addition, British intelligence agency GCHQ, likely working with the NSA, has been attempting to hack into the protected traffic at Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft's Hotmail, the report said. GCHQ had developed "new access opportunities" into Google's system, according to a document from Snowden.

The NSA has also been working for years to weaken international encryption standards, the report said. NSA memos appear to confirm that the agency planted vulnerabilities in an encryption standard adopted in 2006 by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, the report said.

The NSA sees the ability to decrypt information a vital capacity, and the U.S. competes with China, Russia and other countries in that area, according to the documents referenced in the report.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

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