Flash Wave Gaining Strength as Prices Drop
The flash wave is gaining momentum, driven in part by dropping prices as it moves into its sixth year, writes Wikibon Analyst Stuart Miniman. When the first flash storage products, from pioneers like Fusion-IO, appeared, they were focused on a very few use cases that demanded very fast data access, beyond what spinning disk could provide. As prices have dropped, the technologies have become more accepted, major vendors like EMC have entered the market, and the number of flash startups and the use cases that can justify flash have both grown.
The latest entrant into the flash arena are PernixData, which just came out of stealth and announced its “Flash Virtualization Platform”, which embeds software in the VMware hypervisor to enable server-side flash to be clustered and scale out. This allows the flash to be managed in the VM, which is the basic work unit in a virtualized environment. Virsto (recently acquired by VMware), Tintri, and SimpliVity have similar approaches to managing flash in virtualized environments. part by dropping prices as it moves into its sixth year, writes Wikibon Analyst Stuart Miniman. When the first flash storage products, from pioneers like Fusion-IO, appeared, they were focused on a very few use cases that demanded very fast data access, beyond what spinning disk could provide. As prices have dropped, the technologies have become more accepted, major vendors like EMC have entered the market, and the number of flash startups and the use cases that can justify flash have both grown.
Virident recently announced its FlashMAX Connect Suite software, extending the functionality of its PCIe server-side flash storage across servers and as part of a SAN. And NetApp has made two major announcements, of the EF540 all-flash array and three high-end systems for large enterprises.
As the flash wave enters its sixth year, the pace of activity, and of adoption, is picking up rapidly. CIOs, Miniman writes, should examine the numerous use cases for hybrid and all-flash storage systems. Enhanced offerings for extending server-base solutions are not yet ready for production but should be on the list for testing this year. The rate of innovation is faster than the average enterprise storage refresh cycle.
As with all Wikibon research, this Professional Alert is available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals are invite to register for free membership in the Wikibon community. This allows them to comment on research and publish their own tips, Alerts and white papers. Members also receive invitations to the periodic Peer Incite Meetings, where IT professionals discuss how they apply advanced technologies to solve real-world problems.
Since you’re here …
… We’d like to tell you about our mission and how you can help us fulfill it. SiliconANGLE Media Inc.’s business model is based on the intrinsic value of the content, not advertising. Unlike many online publications, we don’t have a paywall or run banner advertising, because we want to keep our journalism open, without influence or the need to chase traffic.The journalism, reporting and commentary on SiliconANGLE — along with live, unscripted video from our Silicon Valley studio and globe-trotting video teams at theCUBE — take a lot of hard work, time and money. Keeping the quality high requires the support of sponsors who are aligned with our vision of ad-free journalism content.
If you like the reporting, video interviews and other ad-free content here, please take a moment to check out a sample of the video content supported by our sponsors, tweet your support, and keep coming back to SiliconANGLE.
