EMC – The SSD Guy Blog

Kaminario Adopts Software-Only Business Model

Kaminario recently decided to adopt a “software-centric” business model, rather than sell all-flash arrays as the company has done since its inception. The company says that this will allow it “to streamline operations, while focusing its resources on continued software innovation,” acknowledging that the change: “represents a strategic business model shift for Kaminario.”

Hardware support for existing and future Kaminario customers will be provided by Tech Data, which Kaminario’s release tells us is the world-leading end-to-end distributor of technology products, services, and solutions.

Jay Kramer of Network Storage Advisors, a friend of The SSD Guy recently provided me with some valuable insights on Kaminario’s restructuring and has allowed me to share them here. Jay is a recognized technology consultant specializing in the network storage industry.

Here’s what Jay has to say Continue reading “Kaminario Adopts Software-Only Business Model”

IBM Refreshes Broad Swath of Flash Offerings

Yesterday IBM unveiled a sweeping update of its existing flash storage products. These updates cover a range of products, including IBM Storwize All Flash arrays: V7000F, V7000 Gen2+, and V5030F, the FlashSystem V9000, the IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC), and IBM’s Spectrum Virtualize Software.

The company referred to this effort as a part of a: “Drumbeat of flash storage announcements.” IBM has a stated goal of providing its clients with: “The right flash for the right performance at the right price.”

IBM’s representatives explained that the updates were made possible by the fact that the prices of flash components have been dropping at a rapid pace while reliability is on the rise. The SSD Guy couldn’t agree more.

Here’s what IBM announced:

Starting from the low end and moving up, the V5030F entry-level/midrange array is an Continue reading “IBM Refreshes Broad Swath of Flash Offerings”

Who’s #1 in Flash Arrays?

A recent conversation with some fellow analysts revealed a puzzling set of claims. EMC, at its EMC World conference (May 3-7) claimed to be the leader in flash array shipments. The very next week, in the same Las Vegas hotel, IBM also claimed leadership in flash.

Who do you believe?

Well a friend of The SSD Guy, marketing consultant Jay Kramer of Network Storage Advisors Inc., tallied up all of the leadership claims he could find and provided this list:

EMC is counting XtremIO Arrays as units shipped and according to Gartner Group held the #1 market share position with a 31.1% share, which is over a ten percentage point share lead
IBM is counting capacity of PBs shipped with all of their flash storage solutions: The FlashSystem 840, 900, V840, V9000, DS8000, plus the XIV systems, Storwize V7000, IBM Flash DAS, and IBM PCIe Adapters
NetApp is the leader if you count total flash systems shipped (NetApp-branded plus privately-branded systems) spanning multiple years as their SANtricity operating system and E-Series platforms have sold over 750,000 units
Pure Storage uses its 700% growth to show that it’s the #1 fastest-growing flash storage company
Then, if you want to compare any vendor’s total all flash array (AFA) systems sold this past year against hybrid storage arrays, Nimble Storage beats any of the AFA vendors.

Continue reading “Who’s #1 in Flash Arrays?”

EMC Chooses EMC Storage!

An acquaintance pointed out that EMC has published a case study detailing how one of its divisions, EMC Corporate IT, decided to use an EMC Isilon storage system over other competing candidates:

After considering various storage solutions, EMC IT selected EMC Isilon® scale-out storage as the foundation for a new Hadoop-as-a-Service (HDaaS) offering.

My acquaintance wondered exactly which systems EMC IT evaluated before selecting an EMC array, and whether or not there was even the option of choosing a product from any of the numerous competing storage array vendors. He pointed out how embarrassing it would have been if this case study had been written by a competitor to tout its win at EMC IT.

You really have to wonder why EMC published this case study. Its customers take it for granted that the company will use its own offerings, and would probably leave in droves if it did not.

To paraphrase an old saying: “No EMC employee ever got fired for choosing EMC!”

Western Digital to Acquire sTec

The following is excerpted from an Objective Analysis Alert e-mailed to our clients on 24 June, 2013:

Western Digital Corporation (WDC) and sTec, Incorporated announced today an agreement for sTec to be acquired by WDC for $340 million in cash. The HGST subsidiary will assume control of sTec and will continue to support existing sTec products and customers, while also remaining a part of its joint development program with Intel Corp. HGST’s current line of SSDs uses an Intel controller architecture combined with an SAS interface, end-to-end data protection, and other features key to the enterprise SSD marketplace.

Although sTec was a glorious first mover in the SSD business with EMC’s Continue reading “Western Digital to Acquire sTec”

STEC SSD Survey Yields Surprising Results

STEC ran a survey at VMworld this week to determine who was using SSDs and how they were using them. Some of the results were a little surprising. Out of 136 attendees surveyed:

Only 5% believe that SSDs provide a competitive advantage
56% say that less than 50% of their business-critical applications are supported by SSDs

STEC shared some further results with The SSD Guy:

54% expected Continue reading “STEC SSD Survey Yields Surprising Results”

Intel Jumps Into the PCIe SSD Market

Intel has gotten into the fast-growing and lucrative market for PCIe SSDs. The company has announced a PCIe SSD, the 910, that provides the high performance you would expect of a PCIe drive with the quality guarantees that customers expect of Intel.

Who could blame them? Fusion-io has become a Wall Street darling for creating the PCIe SSD market, and still rides it to continually growing revenues. LSI is fascinated by the growth of its Warp Drive. Micron attained a significant design win at EMC, Texas Memory Systems (TMS) has had success in its own narrow markets, and Virident, OCZ, and STEC have also participated in the PCIe SSD’s market growth.

Intel’s 910 consists of four Hitachi SAS SSD Continue reading “Intel Jumps Into the PCIe SSD Market”