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SanDisk flash array launch signals imminent AFA battle

Wait 'til you see the niche in the market

Comment With SanDisk joining the ranks of all-flash array vendors, that makes 15 AFA suppliers I know of: far, far too many for industry stability.

There are:

  • Cisco with Invicta currently in hibernation
  • Dell with all-flash Storage Centre
  • EMC with XtremIO and coming DSSD
  • HDS with HAF module in VSP/HUS
  • HGST with Skyera skyHawk
  • HP with StoreServ 7450
  • IBM with FlashSystem
  • Kaminario with K2
  • NetApp with EF560, all-flash FAS and FlashRay in development
  • Pure Storage
  • SanDisk with InfiniFlash
  • SolidFire
  • Tegile with all-flash version of its hybrid array
  • Violin Memory
  • X-IO with rumoured ISE800

A SanDisk spokesperson says that the InfiniFlash product can take TLC flash, which could add 50 per cent to its capacity, boosting it to 750TB raw.

Add in 3D NAND in 12 or 18 months and we're looking at a petabyte box with even lower $/GB cost.

El Reg could see HGST joining the Big Data flash array party; it fits in neatly with its capacity-focussed active archive ideas and the Skyera technology’s packing density.

It is a market niche that, so far, only SanDisk has identified and entered. Surely EMC, that renowned storage market niche filler, has people focussed on it too?

Ditto HDS where there ought to be a Big Data flash play with its HCP (Hitachi Content Platform).

Overall, this set of suppliers has to consolidate. The all-flash array industry is in a frantic development phase; it’s business war out there, and there are going to be casualties. ®

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