Provider of extreme data storage solutions, Data Direct Networks (DDN) scores two cornerstones this week: one with Genomics at Stanford University and the other involving cloud media. With big data and THE cloud penetrating the health industry, DDN has made its mark with its contributions to the Stanford’s Genomics Research Center through GridScaler Parallel HPC Storage Infrastructure.

This product will be providing measurable improvements to Illumina HiSeq 2000 DNA sequencing instruments. The renowned research facility has trusted DDN for optimum performance and capacity to keep up with present day demands in life sciences’ demands.

The move is big for DDN, as it historically has played in the space of the high performance fringe. The company has been very involved in high performance computing and video markets where you need exceedingly high performance–a necessary but rather narrow market.  Expansion for DDN at this point is a strategic move.

Jumping from one territory to another, DDN has been tapped by PhotoBox Ltd. as the next generation platform to administer its cloud of digital photos and social networking media. With more than 11 million active users in 15 countries across the globe, DDN S2A9900 content storage infrastructure is set to manage and power Europe’s premier online photo-sharing site.

Graham Hobson, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of PhotoBox, made mention of the dynamics of their product and monetization prospects.  “PhotoBox manages one of the web’s largest and fastest growing inventories of digital images. Our DDN infrastructure serves as the cornerstone of our operations and ensures seamless, instant access to our users’ rich content while allowing us to grow in whatever direction our business takes. The TCO savings that we’ve achieved with our new DDN system supports our CAPEX/OPEX objectives while also freeing up budget to support new data-intensive revenue opportunities.”

With the unprecedented growth within the cloud industry and its involvement to facets of medicine, academe and society, an emergence of new a breed of scale-out storage providers is becoming rampant. With competition tightening each second, companies would have to intensify their R&D efforts, cloud partnerships and even strategic acquisitions. DDN, considered a biggie, is living up to expectations and giving the public something to rave about with the Stanford Genomics project and PhotoBox. DDN is fresh from cloud nine with Web Object Scaler (WOS) bagging the prestigious New Product Showcase Award.