Capacity Equivalence: Flash Memory Storage Crosses the Next Disruptive Boundary

March 4, 2014

In 2014, high-density flash memory storage such as the 4TB Viking Technology αlpha SSD will accelerate the flash-based disruption of the storage industry and of the data center. Technology providers that engage in a fresh high-density flash-storage-enabled rethinking of their products will empower savvy data center architects to substantially improve the performance, capacity and efficiency of their data centers. Businesses will benefit by reducing the cost of running their IT infrastructures while increasing their capacity to serve customers and generate profits.

Gemini X All Flash Scale-Out Storage Ready to Replace HDD as Enterprise Tier One; Interview with Thomas Isakovich, Nimbus Data Systems, Inc. Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Part 1

February 25, 2014

Recognized as an innovator in storage system technology, Thomas Isakovich sat down with DCIG to discuss the development, capabilities, and innovation in Nimbus Data’s latest release: the Gemini X. In this first blog entry, he guides us through the development of the X-series, and where he sees it fitting into the current market.

Oracle’s Competitive Edge in Enterprise Hybrid Storage Arrays: Storage Scalability Backed by Enterprise Support, Part I

February 21, 2014

The key for many enterprises today is to identify a storage provider that delivers the best of what next generation hybrid storage arrays have to offer. However, technology alone is not enough for enterprise organizations. This storage provider also has to meet internal financial stability and long-term viability requirements as well as deliver enterprise-class technical service and support.

Customized Storage Solutions Trump the Cookie Cutter Approach Every Time; Interview with iXsystems CTO Jordan Hubbard Part II

February 12, 2014

One of the most common requests that DCIG gets from its readers is to include the actual cost of storage systems in its Buyer’s Guides. The reason DCIG continues to decline that request and only includes starting list prices is that most storage systems may be configured in multiple different ways. This makes it impossible to arrive at a definitive price point. The second part in DCIG’s interview series with iXsystem’s Jordan Hubbard illustrates this point as he discusses how the availability of multiple different storage configurations and services trumps a cookie cutter approach to buying storage every time.

A Primer on Today’s Storage Array Types

November 19, 2013

Anyone who managed IT infrastructures in the late 1990’s or early 2000’s probably still remembers how external storage arrays were largely a novelty reserved for high end enterprises with big data centers and deep pockets. Fast forward to today and a plethora of storage arrays exist in a variety of shapes and sizes at increasingly low price points. As such it can be difficult to distinguish between them. To help organizations sort them out, my blog entry today provides a primer on the types of storage arrays currently available on the market.

Insights and Observations about the Forthcoming DCIG 2014 Enterprise Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide

October 18, 2013

Anytime DCIG prepares a Buyer’s Guide – whether a net new Buyer’s Guide or a refresh of an existing Buyer’s Guide – it always uncovers a number of interesting trends and developments about that technology. Therefore it is no surprise (at least to us anyway) that as DCIG prepares to release its DCIG 2014 Enterprise Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide that it observed a number of interesting data points about enterprise midrange arrays. As DCIG looks forward to releasing this Buyer’s Guide, we wanted to share some of these observations and insights that we gained as we prepared this Guide as well as why we reached some of the conclusions that we did.

The Ramifications of Cisco’s Acquisition of WHIPTAIL Technologies

September 13, 2013

Earlier this week Cisco officially became a storage provider when it announced its intention to acquire privately held WHIPTAIL Technologies. While this may have come as a surprise to some, rumors that Cisco was looking to acquire a storage company were already circulating in 2012 at Storage Networking World (SNW) as I discussed in a blog entry last year. So now that Cisco is in the process of becoming a storage company, what are the ramifications of this change in its product offerings?

A Working Definition of Hybrid Storage Arrays and Why This Definition Matters

September 6, 2013

As we were researching arrays for inclusion in the DCIG 2013 Flash Memory Storage Array Buyer’s Guide we kept encountering an intriguing group of companies that had designed–or were developing–storage arrays from the ground up to realize the performance benefits of an all flash array, but with storage capacities and price points that would bring the benefits of flash memory storage to a broader range of businesses. The resulting hybrid storage arrays achieve this balance of performance, capacity, and cost by intelligently combining flash memory with large capacity disk drives in a single storage system.

Multiple Paths to Affordable High Performance in Hybrid Storage

August 9, 2013

As we have been working on the development of a DCIG Buyer’s Guide for Hybrid Storage Arrays, it has been interesting to see the different approaches that the vendors are taking as they seek to leverage flash memory plus traditional hard drives to deliver previously unheard of IOPS and ultra-low latencies at a cost per GB that makes sense to a broad range of businesses. The “secret sauce” varies from vendor to vendor, but in every case it involves sophisticated caching and/or automated storage tiering software.

NetApp Goes Back to Its Roots to Lay the Foundation for Its Future

June 14, 2013

To say or imply that NetApp was in any near term danger of falling from its position as a storage leader would be a gross mischaracterization of its current condition. However it would be accurate to say that the industry lacked clarity as to how NetApp would respond to the encroachment of flash memory storage arrays on the high performance end of storage. After attending the NetApp Industry Analyst event this week it is now clear that to address this challenge NetApp plans to go back to its roots to lay the foundation for its future.

Category: SSD

Capacity Equivalence: Flash Memory Storage Crosses the Next Disruptive Boundary

Gemini X All Flash Scale-Out Storage Ready to Replace HDD as Enterprise Tier One; Interview with Thomas Isakovich, Nimbus Data Systems, Inc. Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Part 1

Oracle’s Competitive Edge in Enterprise Hybrid Storage Arrays: Storage Scalability Backed by Enterprise Support, Part I

Customized Storage Solutions Trump the Cookie Cutter Approach Every Time; Interview with iXsystems CTO Jordan Hubbard Part II

Insights and Observations about the Forthcoming DCIG 2014 Enterprise Midrange Array Buyer’s Guide

The Ramifications of Cisco’s Acquisition of WHIPTAIL Technologies

A Working Definition of Hybrid Storage Arrays and Why This Definition Matters

Multiple Paths to Affordable High Performance in Hybrid Storage

NetApp Goes Back to Its Roots to Lay the Foundation for Its Future

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A Working Definition of Hybrid Storage Arrays and Why This Definition Matters

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