Data Direct is one of just a few companies building server racks offering gigabytes per second of throughput and terabytes and petabytes of storage.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [July 15, 2008]

Chatsworth, Calif.-based DataDirect Networks claims to be the world leader in connectivity. The company specializes in delivering rich media and other demanding applications to those who use it.

"We've been around since the late 1990s, when we started developing our technology," explains Alex Bouzari, the company's CEO. "We felt there was going to be a paradigm shift in the way data is stored and shared between people. It's no longer just bits and bytes of data in airline reservation systems and stock market transaction. Content—images, video, and audio—is making its way into data."

Bouzari says the company's first customers were users of High Performance Computing (HPC) and those using rich media (such as Hollywood and broadcasters).

"We estimate that 40 of the world's 100 fastest computers are enabled by Data Direct storage."

Nowadays, Bouzari says, the company is seeing new customers. Microsoft uses Data Direct for its XBOX Live service, Ferrari uses the technology in its computer simulation tests, the world's largest oil prodcer, Saudi Aramco uses it for seismic exploration data, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories use it to scale SATA technology to consistently hand over 140 GB per second throughput.

"As the XBOX community went from 100,000 users to 1 million and then to 10 million, the company needed infrastructure that would sale. That's what we provide," Bouzari says.

So it's still cutting edge technology; it's no longer niche technology. Almost any market leader can use it.

Other drawers hold storage, at 60 TB per drawer, 600 TB per rack.

It's very dense storage. At 1,200 TB in two racks, with a footprint of 16 1/3 square feet, the company touts its density a 73.49 TB per square foot of data center space, the highest density that we know of.

The future
The product roadmap calls for 800 GB per second throughput in the future. In order to deliver that, the company has to work with chip makers and storage vendors and make sure that they have the technology on which Data Direct will build.

This is not technology that you will install in your own ISP. It's a snapshot of the absolutely top of the line in storage performance.

Bouzari says the company had $25 million in revenue in 2003, over $100 million in revenue in FY 2007, and is aiming for $500 million in annual revenue for the near future.

Also in the cards: an IPO is possible if the market stabilizes (but there's no need sell your company if the potential buyers are scared).

—End