With the recent acquisition of ScaleIO, the EMC Flash Products Division is creating quite the buzz. If it wasn’t clear before the ScaleIO acquisition, it should be now. EMCs Flash strategy is software– Software to unlock the potential and promise of Flash. That strategy has served EMC well over the years. The first ICDA (Integrated Cached Disk Array) introduced in 1990 (the Symmetrix 4200, with a whopping 24GB) was more about software than the hardware of its day, even though 24GB delivered more capacity than any enterprise application could surely need 😉 The real value of that first Symmetrix was, and is, the software. EMCs Flash portfolio is being built around that same philosophy, software. The EMC Xtrem Portfolio: XtremSW, XtremIO and ScaleIO: are all changing the way Flash is leveraged in the data center, via software. XtremSW Caching software at the host. ScaleIO ECS, Elastic Converged Storage providing Pooling, HA and flexibility to local storage via software, and XtremIO, an all new software defined storage array built from the ground up to take advantage of Flash! XtremIO will change the game, leveraging software to take advantage of Flash in a completely different way. Much more on that later this year!
Shortly after EMC officially acquired ScaleIO, I ran into Zahid Hussain. “Z” is the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the EMCs Flash Products Division. Who better to get the inside scoop from! ‘InsideFlash” is all about getting that inside look at Flash Technologies here at EMC.
Inside Flash: Episode #11 features that interview. Thanks for watching! You can contact me directly at sam.marraccini@emc.com, follow me on twitter @SamMarraccini and the blog is www.insideflash.com