Nimble Storage, Inc. has introduced what it labels as the industry’s first predictive all-flash array, the All Flash Array (AFA). The AFA offers predictive analytic features and can be clustered with existing hybrid storage arrays.

Jeff Frick and Stu Miniman, cohosts of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, talk with Suresh Vasudevan, president and CEO of Nimble Storage, at the company’s storage event in San Francisco.

How does Nimble keep its product price-points low?

Asked how Nimble can offer the AFA at such a low price point, Vasudevan pointed out that Nimble has had a price advantage over its competition for the past five years.  He outlined the four elements he believes are critical to Nimble’s efficiency and ability to undercut its competition:

1. Data reduction;
2. Efficient use of DRAM / reduced metadata requirement (1/10^th of competitors, Vasudevan said);
3. Low overhead, low-cost flash; and,
4. Single operating environment across all-flash arrays.

Discussing the public cloud and hyper-convergence

Vasudevan believes that the public cloud is a “force that’s here to stay in a really big way.” He gives the four options a customer has for deployment as SAAS, IAAS, on-prem deployment and public cloud. Adapting for the public cloud is daunting, and so Vasudevan believes that although some part of infrastructure will go to the public cloud and not come back, he is experiencing that customers choHow cose to deploy with SaaS.

He sees the benefit of hyper-convergence as the extreme simplicity as balanced by the challenge brought by the expense of scaling. He predicted that those who bring the simplicity of converged management but retain the ability to scale out will do well.

Is storage heading toward a Nimble future?

Asked about the future of storage, Vasudevan predicted that a new generation of storage companies will emerge as leaders over next three to four years, as the old ones die away. He listed his preconditions for leadership, stating that these are what will be required for a smaller company, such as Nimble, to “displace an EMC.”

1. Breath of technology; having a broad platform
2. Tens of thousands of customers
3. The ability to maintain culture and employee satisfaction while growing in size

Although admitting that “customer acquisition is critical,” Vasudevan obviously has his sights set high for the future growth of Nimble.

On the future in general, Vasudevan sees predictive analysis as becoming more and more relevant: “As we look ahead, we talk of IOT as a major trend. I believe in the data center there will not be a single device that is not proactively responding back on the condition of its health.”

Watch the full video interview below, and be sure to check out more ofSiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Nimble Storage: The Power of Predictive Analytics event.

Photo by SiliconANGLE