Amazon is buying Israeli storage technology startup E8 Storage, according to Israel-based newspaper Globes.
Amazon plans to use E8 Storage’s technology for its cloud service Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to another story by Calcalist.
Citing unnamed sources, Globes estimated the deal is worth between $50 million and $60 million. According to a source cited by Reuters, the valuation of E8 Storage was “significantly lower” than the $50-$60 million reported by Globes. Once the deal closes, all of E8 Storage's 25 employees are slated to join Amazon Web Services' development center in Tel Aviv.
E8 Storage provides flash storage with a rack-scale architecture for the enterprise and software-defined cloud, which it says delivers 10 times the performance for half the cost of existing storage products.
According to Globes, E8's storage solution was designed for enterprises that are seeking to build a private internal organizational cloud infrastructure, or to speed up performance for cloud service providers such as AWS. Storage installs allow companies to find their storage drives away from their local services in large data centers with faster speeds for transmitting data.
By combining hardware and software, companies can create flexible data centers that adjust on the fly to customers' requirements while providing the needed level of storage.
According to Crunchbase, the E8 has raised $18.3 million since it was founded in 2014 by CEO Zivan Ori and vice president of R&D Alex Friedman, both of whom previously worked for IBM in the storage area. E8 is based in Ramat Gan, a town in the Tel Aviv area, and has a sales office on Santa Clara, Calif.
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