Scrambling for SSD
The SSD market is very active because it combines a number of factors: new suppliers, VC funding, OEM deals, take-overs and rumours of acquisitions. In this note we look at the current activity levels and whether the market will settle down. SSD (Solid State Drive) is the semiconductor based alternative to HDD (rotating hard disks) connecting in the disk array or directly on the server. It is attractive since it is much faster than magnetic HDDs and prices are coming down. IT professionals exploit SSD by enhancing workload performance by placing hyper active files on an SSD tier. This is why all disk system vendors have introduced these SSD tiers on their disk systems.
Assessing Dell’s homogeneous storage hypervisor
In this research note we look at Dell’s version of storage hypervisors with a general re-cap on Dell storage. Dell’s storage business changed course in 2010 when it became blatantly obvious that it desired to control its own storage IP. One disruptive consequence was that it spelled the end of re-selling EMC’s products. But it was also the natural consequence of a wider strategy that Dell wanted to be reckoned as a system vendors like IBM or HP. This also meant that Dell’s behaviour needed to change in order to operate as a proper storage IP proprietor and ensure that customers were presented with a comprehensive end-to-end Dell storage portfolio.
How we view storage virtualisation futures
Storage virtualisation brought much benefit to IT professionals, and the current wave is unlikely to disappoint. The first instance was the virtualisation of the disk array some 20+ years ago. The current wave of virtualising storage is characterised by two concepts: Server virtualisation & Pan-array virtualisation. Developing smarter array controller clustering is not trivial and the storage vendors arguably have an open field in terms of the architecture philosophies they could adopt. We think that eventually customers will be faced with a choice between homogeneous and heterogeneous propositions. We are also of the opinion that pursuing heterogeneity is the clever way forward both for customers and vendors.
Avere invigorates NAS storage
Avere Systems provides NAS optimisation disk arrays and was founded in 2008. The Avere proposition is that customers with NAS based storage are likely to desire performance optimisation for a proportion of their data and workloads. The storage industry benefitted from customer’s demand for ever increasing capacity. NAS based customers were no different and the suppliers developed arrays that were highly scalable. Customers would typically grow their NAS by adding more ‘filers’ (called filers because data is accessed as files compared to block based disk arrays). The Avere FXT arrays are not intended to replace a customers’ entire NAS farm, but rather complement it by adding a performance optimised tier. This tier sits near the servers and in front of the bulk of the legacy NAS on the storage network.
Syncsort reinvents itself as a Big Data company
Syncsort is not exactly a new IT company, but since it articulates a focus on Big Data in the wake of an ownership change in 2008 it has a new feel to it. Syncsort has history of providing IBM mainframe customers with enhanced sort functions. It is still successfully doing so, but also does data protection and data integration. Syncsort’s strength lies in its insight into to optimising data transformation, whether in sort or Data Integration. This optimisation translates into productivity savings.
EMC’s federated stance yet to prove long term relevance
Growth in data, its transmission and desire for analytics continue to fuel demand for storage. Beyond sheer capacity, we see technologies and architectures rising to meet the challenge of keeping pace with demand through virtualisation. In this piece we evaluate EMC’s vision and portfolio.
HDS pursues storage hypervisors on a rich set of features
HDS was one of the first high-end disk array vendors to launch multi-vendor support in the disk array as far back as 2004. At the time, HDS surprised its array competitors by unveiling an array controller capable of connecting and virtualising other vendors’ arrays. These days HDS has got 3 products capable of connecting 10 vendor’s arrays plus of course HDS’ own arrays. The challenge of qualifying the many different individual arrays is not trivial, and at the time of writing HDS’ website lists more than 100 supported arrays.
DataCore – consistently championing Storage Hypervisors
DataCore is storage software company which has remained steadfastly focused on storage virtualisation since its inception in 1998. The main proposition is that different vendors’ storage arrays can be virtualised and managed behind commodity servers, (these days x64 servers). A couple of key reasons why customers consider this approach are the desire for a uniform management suite and acquiring features and functions that are more open than a proprietary array vendor’s solution. The array market has got plenty of competition in it, but once a customer selects a particular vendor’s storage platform it can be argued that there is an element of customer lock-in.
FalconStor – pursues multi-pronged storage hypervisor approach
FalconStor is a storage software provider specialising in a set of offerings around smarter storage management and data protection. It built practices around 3 main offerings: storage hypervisors, virtual tape and data protection. Interestingly, the company’s offerings all center around the same core software engine. FalconStor is revisiting its roots as storage hypervisors are gaining in popularity and the company can thus be argued to fit into two of the corners of our storage hypervisor chart. Solutions with the potential to efficiently implement multi-tenancy management have the potential to disrupt what hardware and software, customers build their future infrastructure on.
Xsigo – virtualising the server networking layer
Xsigo produces I/O directors and its mission is to upset the enterprise networking market. The goal is to displace customer’s traditional stacks of network switches with the Xsigo virtualised server fabric. The company asserts that where server and storage layers have been widely virtualised, only vendor proprietary networking virtualisation have been launched; apart, that is, from Xsigo. The positive implications of removing the direct link between physical and logical resources is one we at Rainmaker Files are exploring because of all the benefits customers reap. Networking as a concept obviously dramatically elevated the value of IT by connecting users and IT containers together.