Will tech titans SWALLOW upstart where Apple guru Steve Wozniak works?

Thinking about reality

The data hypervisor is a kernel module (a device drivers) and, as such, is something you can implement only if you have complete support from whoever controls the kernel.

It’s not a major problem for Linux, if I understood well. Primary Data will be releasing the data hypervisor to the open source community (as Nicira did), and this would contribute to its adoption and, in the medium/long term, it could become part of standard Linux distributions.

Things get much harder when it comes to other operating systems or hypervisors, such as with VMware. In fact, I can only imagine the reaction of EMC to a similar product. Also, the Nicira product was much more advanced on Linux than VMware before acquisition.

The product is still in beta, very immature and probably limited. Even if the company is already out of stealth mode it doesn’t have an “off-the-shelf” GA product that you can buy and install tomorrow ... yes, this will take some time.

Closing the circle

Primary Data has a huge potential, but it is too early to say if, or when, it will be able to exploit all of this.

It’s quite clear that it will be getting a lot of attention in the near future and anyone who makes or deals with storage will definitely be keeping their eyes on it.

I can’t really see Primary Data becoming an important storage company but, if I can dare to make a prediction, it will probably be bought for an amazing amount of money from a big vendor sooner than we can expect ... or it'll die out because nobody in the storage industry will support it (it's deadly disruptive for traditional vendors!).

The first prediction is much more likely of course, and I would bet my money on VMware or, why not, companies such as Cisco. ®

Disclaimer: I was invited to this meeting by Condor Consulting Group and it paid for travel and accommodation. I have not been compensated for my time and am not obliged to blog. Furthermore, the content is not reviewed, approved, or published by any other person than the Juku team.