In normal cases, flash is only added to a computer to accelerate access to data. However, the biggest consumers of flash are the massive arrays filling entire racks for cloud-based high-performance systems. But now, even enterprise data centres and server farms are incorporating flash, but not without the hassle of writing the software that decides what's the most important data to keep in the flash cache, and when to shuffle it back and forth to disk or tape without conflicts.

That's where SolidFire comes in, which claims to be the number one vendor of solid-state arrays, but also said its software is its only proprietary intellectual property (IP) and is now unbundling it so even the hyperscale server farms can use SolidFire.

"We believe that eventually flash will replace all storage, except perhaps backup and archival data, but for now we want to provide the biggest number of options to allow every server to get in on the acceleration achieved by adding flash to your storage system," said Dave Wright, SolidFire CEO.

SolidFire's main success tactic so far has been to buy flash arrays, package them in their own boxes, then install their proprietary Element operating system (OS) software into a server, which mediates between the flash arrays and the disk farms and tape backup systems. So far, that strategy is growing like gangbusters, giving them 50 per cent growth during each quarter of 2014 and a 570 per cent increase in bookings for high-end enterprise systems in 2014.

But now they want to conquer the rest of the server world by allowing customers to by their own servers and their own flash memory arrays, then calling SolidFire to come in and install their secret sauce, its Element OS software, to make it all work with their disks and tape drives.

"You might not think so, but there is a lot of complexity in using flash arrays to store the most used data, and keep it in sync with the disks and tape drives; its not just a simple backup operation everyday," said Wright.

SolidFire offers an array of guarantees with its Element OS. Its "flashforward" guarantee states that any customer with a service contract will be able to add new flash technology as it comes out and still be completely compatible with the hardware they already have in place. SolidFire also guarantees unlimited flash endurance and will replace any of their flash arrays that wear out during use no matter what the workloads. SolidFire is also offering a new low-priced flash array that is 24 per cent less costly at a sacrifice of 30 per cent performance.

And by offering its Element X Program, SolidFire hopes to attract the hyper-scale customers who want to buy inexpensive commodity servers and glue them to commodity disk farms with their own flash arrays. Any platform will do, but the Element OS is pre-qualified for the Dell PowerEdge Platform and Cisco's UCS C-Series Rack-Mount server. Other platforms will be qualified by SolidFire as customers take advantage of the Element X Program, whether they are for infrastructure consumption, service provider partners, converged infrastructure of as turnkey appliances through SolidFire's Cloud Builder partners.

By: DocMemory
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