In March I outlined EMC’s vision for the next step in the evolution of Flash deployments. This evolution is a move to abstract the properties of different types of Flash with software that manages all flavors of Flash across the entire data center.
Today, we’re accelerating our ability to do just that by signing an agreement to acquire privately-held ScaleIO, a pioneer in scalable server-side storage software.
ScaleIO Elastic Converged Storage (ECS) software will become part of the EMC XtremSW Suite of Flash storage software. The addition of ScaleIO to our portfolio will enable EMC customers to build protected, shared storage pools from in-server direct-attached storage (DAS), such as XtremSF PCie Flash cards—while not limiting them to any storage media type or form factor. The beauty of ScaleIO is that it takes a software-only approach to managing SSDs, PCIe Flash cards, HDDs—or any combination of these—within the server. Over time we will build in additional enterprise features so that advanced data services can be delivered irrespective of the underlying hardware. This is the essence of delivering an XtremSW Suite that manages Flash across an entire data center.
So let’s look a bit more closely at an ECS enabled environment…
Customers run a lightweight Data Server (DS) driver on any node that contains DAS Flash that you want to add to a virtual pool, and a Data Client (DC) driver on any node that should have access to the virtual pool. Of course, customers can run both the DS and DC code on a node that both contributes storage to a pool and needs access to the pool.
With ECS as the foundation, EMC can build out a scale-out server stack for a wide variety of use cases like VDI, virtualization, databases, and HPC…in several target markets. For example, we can provide elastic, dynamic and flexible Flash storage to service provider partners who provide public cloud to their customers.
In my EMC TV Interview, I talk more about the capabilities ScaleIO will bring to EMC. Check out the video below…
EMC will build upon the ECS core and, over time, deliver enterprise-class functionality and EMC quality at massive scale. This will allow us to provide additional flexibility and reduce provisioning time for enterprise customer’s private clouds.
Flash will continue to be all about the software and we will continue our work to fulfill our vision through both organic innovation, and the integration of ScaleIO technology.
I’m thrilled to welcome ScaleIO to the EMC Flash Product Division. To read the press release, click here.
Stay tuned for more developments on the powerful combination of EMC and ScaleIO…
