SSD Market Share/ SanDisk buys Fusion-io

A recent survey by Gartner (see below) shows Intel and Samsung leading in shipment of SSD storage for enterprise.

Sandisk is strengthening their position by buying Fusion-io

Ron
Insightful, timely, and accurate semiconductor consulting.
Semiconductor information and news at - http://www.maltiel-consulting.com/

 IBM officially biggest all-flash array shipper - analyst

Gartner AFA data hits the street

By Chris Mellor, 13 Jun 2014 

No, it isn’t the greatly anticipated all-flash array magic quadrant, but it's great Gartner analysis nonetheless. The number-crunchers at Gartner HWQ have produced a Market Share Analysis: SSDs and Solid-State Arrays, Worldwide, 2013. Yummy. Let’s see what’s inside.

The doc, available as a download from Pure Storage (guess who's done well in the analysis) after registering a few details. It looks at both SSDs and all-flash arrays, which Gartner calls Solid State Arrays (SSAs) and IBM comes out as the leading SSA shipper – with Pure Storage second.

SSAs are defined carefully: ”SSAs are scalable, dedicated, solutions based solely on solid-state semiconductor technology for data storage that cannot be configured with HDD technology at any time. As distinct from SSD-only racks within ECB storage arrays, an SSA must be a stand-alone product denoted with a specific name and model number, which typically (but not always) includes an operating system and data management software optimised for solid-state technology.”

To cut a long story short, Dell and HDS all-flash array products are excluded, as are all-flash versions of – for example – EMC VMAX and VNX, and NetApp FAS arrays.

The SSD category embraces PCIe flash cards and also includes “self-contained solid-state NAND dual in-line memory modules (DIMMs), which must be used in dedicated slots in servers. Mainstream PC SSDs being used in servers are counted in this category due to end consumption.”

We’ll graph the information here, and you can read the detailed numbers by downloading the doc. The SSD info starts with worldwide vendor revenues:

Click chart for larger version

Total SSD revenues in 2012 were $7.2 billion, and in 2013 had risen to $10.99 billion, a 53.1 per cent increase.

Samsung as top dog got most of that with Intel, growing less, at number 2. Look at Sandisk’s rocketing growth up into the no 3 slot, closely followed by Micron. Toshiba held its fifth place but didn’t grow much. WD grew, Fusion-io declined and now we’re in the tail-enders.

Now let’s look at the enterprise SSD market:

Intel is top dog, not second-placed Samsung. WD, with its HGST/Intel SSDs is in third place followed by SanDisk successfully exhibiting its enterprise supplier credentials. Then there’s Fusion-io, which declined 2012 - 2013, Google with its internal use - amazing - Micron is a, we think, in a disappointing sixth place, NetApp a, for it, strong seventh then LSI and Seagate. EMC does not appear at all.

Now for the SSA numbers.

Here are the vendor revenue market share numbers:

Click chart to make it larger.

And here the actual SSA revenues by vendor:

Click chart to make it larger

IBM has had a wildly successful 2013 year, solidly overtaking Violin Memory to claim a dominating number 1 slot. Pure Storage has rocketed to the number 2 position in 2013 while Violin Memory slumped from first place in 2013 to third in 2013, illustrating the new management team’s uphill task. EMC has sprung into fourth place from a standing start and NetApp is not far behind in the fifth slot. Then there’s Nimbus Data and tail-ender Cisco - a dismal showing for the networking behemoth in our view, with startup SolidFire very close behind.

The SSA market was sized by Gartner at $236.5m in 2012, and 182.1 per cent higher at $667.3m in 2013. IBM’s SSA revenues grew at 278.1 per cent, Pure's at a magnificent 642.3 per cent and no other vendor outpaced the market, meaning they lost share.

Now this is artificial, as EMC, Kaminario, SolidFire and HP had no presence in Gartner’s numbers in 2013, but we can assert that Violin Memory, NetApp, Nimbus and Cisco all lost share from 2012 to 2013. With EMC, Kaminario, SolidFire and HP now in the SAA market we might expect these losses to continue in 2014.

The Gartner analysis contains more data, segment metrics and so forth. It’s worth a download and read if you’re interested.

Main takeaway? Big Blue really is big in SSAs, Pure Storage is living up to its hype, and the SSA market is growing at a fast lick. NAND the story goes on

Intel, Google and Smartphones

The article below raises an important point. Intel can get ahead in the smart phone market by working closely together with Google on next generation mobile phones.

Both can benefit by combining Intel's advanced processing and design prowess with Google's software and hardware capabilities.


See more about Intel, Google, and mobile phones in the enterprise market at Intel to Target Enterprise by Including vPro in Smartphones


 

Ron





Intel Chips on Android based Motorola and Lenovo Smart Phones
http://nucleation.blogspot.com/2012/01/intel-chips-on-android-based-motorola.html?m=1


Intel Chips on Android based Motorola and Lenovo Smart Phones Intel has made an announcement at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that Motorola Mobility and Lenovo will use their new chip designed for mobile devices on upcoming Android based smart phones. Intel even demoed its own prototype smart phone built using the new chip Medfield.

Medfield chip will help Intel in entering the mobile process sector, dominated by Arm Holdings. This is Intel's second attempt to have their chips on smart phones. In CES 2010, LG had announced a tie up with Intel, which never found light. This time Intel has even announced some rough shipping dates. Lenovo would launch a Medfield-based phone by July in China and Motorola in second half this year.


Designed to balance processing power against energy use the chip helps in maximising battery life. With Intel's well-established 32-nanometre technology, the chip packs C86-architecture central processing unit (CPU), RAM Memory, storage and graphics processing unit all onto the same chip. The prototype unit that Intel demoed in CES could deliver eight hours of 3G voice calls, six hours of 1080p video decoding or five hours of 3G internet browsing.


In an interview given to BBC, Intel's Ultra Mobility Group General Manager told, "Battery life on this platform is not the best in the mobile market, but it is by far not the worst. We are very effective and good at some tasks and sort of in the middle of the pack at others. Essentially, we think you can build a Smartphone based upon our processor with an ordinary sized battery that you see in today's smart phones that will provide a great experience. There will be no battery life issue on our platform."


Intel claims to have taken steps to prevent existing Android apps from being incompatible or slow on its chips.

Intel says that it has developed a technology to tackle 25% of apps designed specifically to run on ARM-based processors.

These applications may consume more power than applications developed for Intel chips. This power consumption will not be so noticeable by end users. Intel is planning to use the chip in tablets at a later stage. However, for now Intel is promoting a Clover Trail processor for tablets running the upcoming Windows 8 system. There have been discussions in Intel to move into mobile manufacturing sector also. That may happen only in distant future. For the success of Intel, it is important for them to crack a way into the mobile device market. With the advent of new technologies, gap between smart phones and tablets versus PCs and laptops will become narrow. Manufacturers have started experimenting ARM-based laptops running Linux Operating system.
To be on the run, Intel needs to grow its business at a significant rate and must participate in this market.