DCIG is pleased to announce the availability of the DCIG 2017-18 All-flash Array Buyer’s Guide developed from the enterprise storage array body of research.
The DCIG 2017-18 All-flash Array Buyer’s Guide weights, scores and ranks more than 100 features of twenty-five (25) products from twelve (12) different storage vendors. Using ranking categories of Recommended, Excellent and Good this Buyer’s Guide offers much of the information an organization should need to make a highly-informed decision as to which all-flash storage array will suit their needs.
Each array included in the DCIG 2017-18 All-flash Array Buyer’s Guide had to meet the following criteria:
- Must be available as an appliance that is available as a single SKU and includes its own hardware and software.
- Must be marketed as an all-flash array (AFA). The best evidence of meeting this criterion is the existence of a specific all-flash SKU.
- Must use flash memory as primary storage, not merely as an extended cache.
- May permit storage expansion with disk shelves that contain HDDs or the virtualization of external disk-based arrays—essentially converting the all-flash array into a hybrid storage array.
- Must support one or more of the following storage networking protocols: iSCSI, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, NFS.
- There must be sufficient information available to DCIG to make meaningful decisions. DCIG makes a good faith effort to reach out and obtain information from as many storage providers as possible. However, products may be excluded because of a lack of sufficient reliable data.
- Must be formally announced and/or generally available for purchase as of February 28, 2017.
DCIG’s succinct analysis provides insight into the state of the all-flash storage array marketplace. The Buyer’s Guide identifies the specific benefits organizations can expect to achieve using an all-flash storage array and key features organizations should be aware of as they evaluate products. It also provides brief observations about the distinctive features of each product. Ranking tables enable organizations to get an “at-a-glance” overview of the products; while DCIG’s standardized one-page data sheets facilitate side-by-side comparisons assisting organizations to quickly create a short list of products that may meet their requirements.
End users registering to access this report via the DCIG Competitive Intelligence Portal also gain access to the DCIG Interactive Buyer’s Guide (IBG). The IBG enables organizations take the next step in the product selection process by generating custom reports, including comprehensive side-by-side feature comparisons of the products in which the organization is most interested.