Dell app servers getting flashy
NetApp watch out
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Dell Storage Forum Dell is looking at putting flash in application servers. It will be seen as another tier of storage by EqualLogic and Compellent arrays.
Dell storage head Darren Thomas said: "Flash will revolutionise [app] servers. It might be owned by the array. … Both [EqualLogic and Compellent] can write and tier outside the sheet metal."
Conceptually this is equivalent to EMC's Project Lightning and both are different from NetApp which has put its Flash Cache in the array controller and has no plans, as we understand it, to put solid state cache in servers.
Lawrence James, NetApp's UK country spokesman, says array controller flash is inherently more sharable between accessing servers than flash in a physical app server which can only be shared amongst apps in that server.
James's example of a great use case for array controller flash is to store the golden copy of a desktop operating system and system software that is going to be used in a boot storm.
Thomas said of Dell's app server flash: "The array could manage it [but] it's off the horizon in terms of [a] development [schedule]."
He added this: "Customers don't want to manage their data in two or three places."
If Dell, and EMC, can demonstrably show performance advantages from having array-managed app server flash cache that are more significant than a few microseconds decrease in latency, then the NetApp approach will face a marketing obstacle.
HP, IBM and Oracle could follow Dell and EMC ,as they have their own server and storage products, which would give NetApp an even bigger headache. ®
COMMENTS
IDC numbers make sense
Yes, Dell´s OEM CX is avaiable trough the second half. But it´s not selling after the VNX introduction.
SAS drives for the VMAX has been announced, and will be available later this year.
Compellent at half the price of what ?
Do you compare against VMAX ? That´s hardly realistic :-)
Compellent : 2 controllers
VMAX : 16 controllers (eight engines), global cpu/cache/io resources.
Even the VNX has more horsepower than Compellent, with it´s flash optimized architecture.
Compellent : 2 controllers (quad core Nehalem), 4GB cache
VNX: 2 block controllers (6-core Westmere) , 48GB cache and up to 2TB of flash based cache + 8 file controllers (6-core Westmere), each with 24Gb cache (192GB total for file).
IDC numbers make any sense?
Hi Bladerunner, The CX drop will only start in the second half as Dell and EMC transcripts mention. Never feel happy being on top of maketshare is good. More pressure and issues. Ever thought what happened to Nokia in last 2 years. The king of phones are no where now. Simple SAS drive support on VMAX and VMAXe is missing and guess buying companies will not solve core issues. Go and innovate hard! Compellent is too good at half the price.
Wow! Too fast
Looks like Dell started hiring the "project lightening" team from EMC. Better hire after they figure out what to do with flash on servers. Fusion-io has been doing this for years and Dell has a Better reason than EMC. NetApp is interesting as they don't change vision overnight and continue to do things unique. I would say "EMC watch out" as a big chunk of clariions are through Dell
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