The market for new vendors operating in the area of storage is budding. To the casual observer the disappearance of players like EqualLogic, XIV, 3PAR, Compellent and Isilon may have signaled the sweeping up of the last array guys. But those were not fire sales. After significant sums had changed hands, there was plenty of upside for the buyers in question.
This consolidation was driven by a mix of:
• Buying IP
• Buying customer base
• Economies of scale
• Bolstering portfolios
What about the new supply? On closer scrutiny the new players get launched for another set of reasons:
1. Inventiveness
2. Entrepreneurial desire
3. Cost out/profit in
4. Unemployment
First of all, good engineers have good ideas (1) for how to make new and/or better things. Then (2) there is the desire in the IT eco system to create businesses and make money. And (3) there is often an opportunity to put things together differently using cheaper components, yielding higher returns. Lastly, (4) individuals get restless after they sell out and look for new challenges.
The new players that cropped up on our data intelligence radar include (in alphabetical order): Amplidata, Avere, Caringo, Cloudera, Druva, Scality, Virsto, Virtual Instruments and Virtual Sharp. And if you add the slightly older Coraid, Panasas, Violin and Xsigo that is just 13 of the new suppliers. Their sphere of interest is wide: Object storage, NAS optimisation, Hadoop storage, mobile backup, storage hyper visor, FC optimisation, VMware DR, Ethernet SAN, high performance storage, micro second storage and server I/O.
Customers face many new decisions in enhancing their data layer. We will focus our data intelligence efforts to help rainmakers grow their businesses whether they be budding or established players.
Image credit: Don White Photography