Cisco shuts down Invicta flash business

Storage business closes almost two years after Cisco's $415m acquisition of Whiptail

Cisco has confirmed that it is shutting down the Invicta flash storage business almost two years after it acquired storage vendor Whiptail for $415m (£267m).

The storage product was pulled from the market last year due to scaling problems, but was reinserted shortly after, according to Network World.

Cisco has suggested in an email that Invicta was not offering the value it had hoped, for the company and for its customers.

The vendor commented: "Cisco is prioritising the elements of our portfolio to drive the most value for our customers both now and in the future, and today, we are announcing the end of life (EoL) for the Invicta Appliance and Scaling System products."

Customers using Invicta products will still receive support from the company, including any technical assistance, software support and spare or replacement part requirements.

Sources have stated that 80 employees working in this part of the business have been affected by the closure, but Cisco has not yet confirmed this number.

Network World also reported that some expect Cisco to take another stab at the storage market with the possible acquisition of Nutanix, but the storage vendor's CEO Dheeraj Pandey has denied the rumours, saying in an open letter to "team Dell": "If we ever decide to be a part of another company, Dell will have the front-row seat in bidding for it."

A representative from Cisco added in the email: "Cisco maintains a leadership position in the datacentre market, with high demand and growing market share. UCS delivers on customers' compute and network needs, and we will continue to invest in building world-class datacentre solutions via UCS product innovations, and market-leading flash storage solutions from our partner ecosystem."