The Register did a nice job of summing up the (late 2008) flash positioning of the various storage companies, and I recently posted a strategic look at this core issue. Note that some, like HP and Sun (and probably IBM), seem to have an end-to-end strategy, while others are firmly in one camp or the other. In the “not yet” column, apparently, are 3PAR, BlueArc (though they offer TMS RAM), Dell/EqualLogic, HP/LeftHand.

Update: 3PAR has joined the “disk” camp.

It’s a Cache

Fusion-IO has rocketed to the forefront of the cache side with their PCI Express flash boards for servers. Joining them in this position are the following companies:

• HP (blades and servers)
• NetApp (PAM read cache card)
• Pillar (Slammer cache)
• Sun (read and write cache)

It’s a Disk

STEC is the darling of the flash-as-a-disk world, though Intel, Marvell, and Samsung are also playing here. Joining them in the corner are the following:

• EMC (STEC flash drives shipping the DMX now and CLARiiON in the future)
• Compellent (flash drives)
• HDS (flash drives in the USP-V)
• HP (flash drives in the MSA, perhaps, and maybe that Oracle thing)
• IBM (Fusion-IO storage behind SVC and standard flash drives in the DS5000)
• LSI (flash drives in the 7900)
• NetApp (ssd drives)
• Pillar (flash drives)
• Sun (flash drives in Thumper and JBOD)
• Xiotech (flash drives in the next Emprise canisters)
• 3PAR (flash drives in InServe)

So there you have it. It’s both a disk and a cache, depending on whether you sell servers or arrays apparently. If you sell both, it’s both. Simple!

If anyone wants to correct any of this, drop me a line or comment below!

See my posts on Gestalt IT for similar enterprise IT infrastructure commentary

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Is Flash A Disk Or A Cache?
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