Storage vendor NetApp Inc. has confirmed its plan to acquire all-Flash storage startup SolidFire Inc. in an all-cash deal estimated at $870 million.

If and when the acquisition is completed, NetApp will get its hands on a specialist all-flash storage system maker for enterprise data centers. The benefits of flash in the data center need no introduction – it’s a faster, quieter and more energy-efficient way of storing and accessing data, which are all critical advantages in a world where everybody’s trying to do everything in real-time.

NetApp’s statement confirms last week’s rumor that it was looking to acquire SolidFire for $1.2 billion, albeit at a considerably cheaper price than what CRN.com first reported. Previously, legacy vendors including Cisco Systems Ltd., EMC Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. were all said to be looking at a possible acquisition.

NetApp says that once the acquisition closes, it will be able to tout offerings for each of the three largest segments in the all-flash array market – namely, traditional enterprise infrastructure buyers; application owners; and next-generation infrastructure buyers.

SolidFire‘s main focus is on helping cloud providers to prevent any one tenant demanding excessive resources. In other words, it says it offers a solution to the long-standing “noisy neighbor” problem. The company also touts the endurance of its flash storage systems via its “FlashForward” program which guarantees its products won’t wear out over time.

“SolidFire combines the performance and economics of all-flash storage with a webscale architecture that radically simplifies data center operations and enables rapid deployments of new applications,” NetApp CEO George Kurian said in a statement. “We look forward to extending NetApp’s flash leadership with the SolidFire team, products and partner ecosystem, and to accelerating flash adoption through NetApp’s large partner and customer base.”

NetApp added that it plans to incorporate SolidFire’s products into its Data Fabric strategy over time, thereby “delivering seamless data management across flash, disk and cloud resources”.

With the acquisition, NetApp gains a much stronger flash offering that’ll help it to finally recover from the embarrassment of its FlashRay debacle, which saw it try and fail to develop its own brand of flash technology together with an operating system called Mars. The company will also benefit from an immediate uptick in its revenues, and should be able to better fend off all-flash incursions from rival storage firms into its customer base.

NetApp said the acquisition is on schedule to close at the end of its fiscal fourth quarter 2016, which comes at the end of April 2016.

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