Amplidata

Amplidata, founded in 2008 by Wim De Wispelaere and Wouter Van Eetvelde, carved a niche for itself in the object storage market before its strategic acquisition by Western Digital's subsidiary, HGST, in March 2015 for an undisclosed sum. The company originated in Lochristi, Belgium, with a vision to address the burgeoning need for scalable and resilient data storage solutions, a vision shaped by the founders' backgrounds. Wim De Wispelaere brought his experience in sales and marketing for technology companies to the table, while Wouter Van Eetvelde, a Ghent University alum, provided the technical expertise in storage systems and architecture.

The firm's core business revolved around developing and licensing its flagship software, Himalaya®, an object storage platform designed for the demanding environments of cloud data centers and large enterprises. This technology enables the creation of scale-out, software-defined storage systems capable of managing petabytes of data with high levels of durability and efficiency. Amplidata's business model focused on an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) strategy, partnering with hardware vendors and large cloud service providers who would integrate Himalaya into their own storage offerings. This approach allowed them to embed their technology within broader data infrastructure ecosystems.

The acquisition by HGST was a culmination of a pre-existing partnership. The two companies were already collaborating on HGST's Active Archive platform, which leveraged Amplidata's software to deliver cost-effective, large-scale storage systems. The integration into HGST, and subsequently Western Digital, aimed to combine Amplidata's software proficiency with the parent company's deep expertise in hard drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) manufacturing. This vertical integration was intended to create highly optimized storage systems where the software and hardware are tightly coupled, extracting maximum performance and efficiency for customers dealing with exponential data growth. The Amplidata team and its technology were absorbed into HGST's Elastic Storage Platforms group.

Keywords: object storage, software-defined storage, data storage solutions, cloud data centers, OEM, petabyte-scale, data resiliency, archive platform, storage software, enterprise storage