Sandisk picks up Schooner for enterprise flash

Flash memory maker Sandisk has bought enterprise software company Schooner Information Technology. Schooner specialises in developing flash-optimised databases and data stores.

SanDisk claims Schooner’s products complement its own enterprise SSD and flash-optimised software, specifically helpful in customers boosting the performance of data-heavy applications and in reducing overall ownership costs.

Schooner’s team will be folded into Sandisk’s Enterprise Storage Solutions wing, while its products will be tinkered with until they are optimised for Sandisk’s own enterprise SSD portfolio, and for third party enterprise SSDs too. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Sandisk boasts that its new prchase already has customers in several Fortune 500 companies, in the US and around the world. Sandisk claims that Schooner’s products are made to plug the gap between DIY open source expensive, high-end database deployments. According to the company, they are a good way to achieve enterprise level performance – as they help in consolidating data centres at a lower cost. Sandisk claims Schooner products can deliver five times more throughput of near competitors.

Schooner, Sandisk claims, is also expertly able to combine DRAM and flash memory into a single offering which can offer near-DRAM performance at a lower cost.

Greg Goelz, veep and GM of Enterprise Storage Solutions at Sandisk, said in a statement that Schooner products are a good guide for software developers and customers to understand the benefits of flash optimised technology in the enterprise.

“Schooner represents another step in Sandisk’s expansion in the enterprise space,” Goelz said.