EMC’s Future is Flush with Flash

Storage giant thinks inside the box.

EMC (NYSE:EMC) wants to get inside your server. Traditionally EMC delivers huge storage solutions that are completely separate from the servers, but an increased demand for bandwidth combines with requirement for lower latency now has EMC announcing that they have developed a series of PCI Express-based caching products that use flash technology to store most frequently used data.

By moving the data closer to the processor the latency can be dramatically reduced, which in many instances means that data can be consolidated on fewer mechanical hard drives – since the cache drive is now the critical point when it comes to measuring I/O.

The news was announced by EMC’s COO Pat Gelsinger at EMCWorld here in Las Vegas. Yes, you read correctly – Pat Gelsinger, the former head honcho for Intel’s enterprise products is now the COO for EMC – and it is hardly surprising that he wants to move the data closer to the processor.

And why is this important to you? You may argue that what big enterprise does has no impact, but technological advancement has a tendency to trickle down and in the future you should expect to see some of the same technologies be used in personal computing.

In addition to the PCI Express caching products EMC also announced that it will start offering SSDs that are based on MLC-technology in addition to the SLC offerings that the company already has. MLC products are cheaper and slightly slower than SLC products. This should also mean, that we as consumers eventually will see cheaper SSDs for our personal use.S|A

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