Western Digital Accelerates Leadership in Next-Generation Data Center Architectures With Acquisition of Kazan Networks

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) and Kazan Networks announced today that Western Digital has completed the acquisition of Kazan Networks, a provider of industry-leading NVMe™-over-Fabric (NVMe-oF) ASIC and adapter products for next-generation data center architectures. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Kazan Networks offers the industry's highest performing and most power efficient NVMe-oF bridge solutions to seamlessly connect and share JBOFs and other data center resources over fabric. The addition of Kazan Networks' portfolio of adapter- and ASIC-level integration products, which include the Fuji NVMe-oF Bridge ASIC and the Onyx NVMe-oF Bridge Adapter, will immediately accelerate Western Digital's data infrastructure leadership, capabilities and offerings. The acquisition also expands Western Digital's expertise in advanced fabric-enabled architectures that will enable the company to enhance its portfolio of NVMe fabric-ready platforms and systems, including its OpenFlex™ composable disaggregated infrastructure (CDI) offerings which were introduced by the company last year.

"Kazan Networks is a proven innovator in high-performance networking and NVMe-oF, with industry-leading solutions to connect storage subsystems to an Ethernet fabric," said Phil Bullinger, senior vice president and general manager of Western Digital's Data Center Systems business. "The addition of Kazan Networks will further expand Western Digital's leadership in disaggregated data infrastructure and accelerate the advancement of new, CDI-ready NVMe-oF platforms optimized for our customers' next-generation hyperscale workloads. We are pleased to welcome the Kazan Networks' talented team to our organization."

The exponential growth in the volume, variety and velocity of data is driving the demand for flexible, scalable and disaggregated data center environments that can effectively adapt to diverse and dynamic applications workloads. Western Digital has taken an active role in helping to advance CDI and NVMe fabric-based technologies, with multiple related strategic investments and ecosystem partnerships, purpose-built technology innovations, support of open standards, and its OpenFlex platform and portfolio – which includes the industry's fastest NVMe-oF open composable storage platform.

The acquisition of Kazan Networks adds cutting-edge ASIC and adapter products with established interoperability with a wide ecosystem of partners, new and expanded customer relationships, and a proven team deeply experienced in networking and bridging technology.

"The Kazan Networks team is excited to join Western Digital, with whom we share a long-standing relationship and commitment to advancing NVMe-oF technology and CDI," said Margie Evashenk, chief executive officer, Kazan Networks. "The close integration of purpose-built controller and storage technology is pivotal to realizing the full benefits of advanced next-generation fabric architectures, including lower power, higher performance and lower cost. The team looks forward to working together to transform data centers through interconnected  innovation."

About Western Digital
Western Digital, a leader in data infrastructure, creates environments for data to thrive. The company is driving the innovation needed to help customers capture, preserve, access and transform an ever-increasing diversity of data. Everywhere data lives, from advanced data centers to mobile sensors to personal devices, our industry-leading solutions deliver the possibilities of data. Our data-centric solutions are marketed under the G-Technology™, SanDisk®, WD®, and the Western Digital® brands.

About Kazan Networks
Kazan Networks is a privately held startup founded in December 2014 by storage networking veterans. The company is located in Roseville, CA and is now shipping production silicon and adapter products throughout the industry.

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the expected benefits of our acquisition of Kazan Networks, market positioning, product portfolio, business strategies and growth opportunities, market trends, and data growth and its drivers. Forward-looking statements should not be read as a guarantee of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of the times at, or by, which such performance or results will be achieved, if at all. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements.

Key risks and uncertainties include volatility in global economic conditions; business conditions and growth in the storage ecosystem; impact of competitive products and pricing; actions by competitors; unexpected advances in competing technologies; our development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, including our most recently filed periodic report, to which your attention is directed. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

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