(circa 2015 -
before its acquisition by Pivot3)
NexGen
Storage offers value-driven hybrid flash arrays that let customers prioritize
data and application performance based on business value. Unlike other storage
solutions that treat all data the same, NexGen's policy-based Quality of Service
enables customers to avoid the high cost of all-flash arrays and the
inconsistent performance of SSD-based hybrid arrays. By connecting customers to
the business value of data, NexGen's solutions deliver the predictable
application performance end-users require combined with industry-leading flash
utilization. Committed to channel success, NexGen provides reseller partners
registered deal protection and rich margins on every opportunity. For more
information, visit www.nexgenstorage.com.
see also:-
NexGen -
mentions on StorageSearch.com
DWDP - examples from the market
hybrid storage appliance
news
after
AFAs - what's next?
Did you mean to look for
NxGn Data aka NGD Systems?
In January
2016 -
Pivot3 eased its way
into the SSD market by announcing that it had agreed to acquire
NexGen Storage (which
had been in the auto tiering / caching / hybrid (SSD ASAP) appliance
market.
See also:- list of SSD company
acquisitions since 2000
who's who in SSD? - NexGen Storage
(a rags to riches to
independence tale of enterprise SSD families)
Zsolt Kerekes,
editor - StorageSearch.com
- June 2015
NexGen Storage has a complex pedigree.
The
company exited stealth mode in
November 2011 with
a product in the SSD ASAP
market - a 3U auto-tiering hybrid appliance which included both flash and
hard drives.
We've now gotten well used to fully integrated
products like that because the "everything from the same source hybrid"
has become more popular than the "new hybridizing box which sits between
other 3rd party legacy storage boxes you already own" - which was the
original market implementation of this auto-tieirng / caching / hybrid
concept.
One noteworthy feature at the time (in 2011) was that
NexGen's flash implementation at that time was based on
PCIe SSDs from
Fusion-io - which was
the #1 best known and top supplier of such products in the enterprise for many
years.
That was another risk reduction factor for users - as it was
clear that this PCIe SSD family had both a proven enterprise pedigree and a
strong market roadmap.
What Fusion-io didn't have at the time, however,
was a market ready rackmount systems product line.
And although
Fusion-io had developed a prototype rackmount accelerator concept - the ION -
aimed at the high end Violin
and IBM flasharray
performance class - Fusion-io probably realized that this would not open the
doors to a a new mass box market.
So in
April 2013
Fusion-io acquired NexGen with the proclaimed idea of morphing itself to a
systems business.
Alas in retrospect that was a mistake for both
companies.
- for Fusion-io - because at that point in time it lacked the financial
resources and people and knowhow to bootstrap a rackmount systems business
business - due to its core PCIe SSD business being salami sliced by so many
competitors.
- for NexGen - (from the outside at least) it looked as though very little
useful was being done to market the product. - NexGen probably would have done
more and faster - as a standalone company.
In
June 2014
SanDisk announced it
was going to acquire Fusion-io - and the NexGen product line went into yet
another acquisition delay decision grinder.
In
January 2015 -
NexGen's long period with the marketing button on pause ended when it was spun
off as a separate company again. (During that long period on marketing pause -
competitors like Tegile
and Nimble had been
pressing their feet down to the metal on fast forward - but there was plenty
of market still to be had and plenty of undecideds.)
SanDisk's divorce
from a hybrid array concept which used
hard drives was
probably due to the fact that the company - being a newcomer to the systems
market itself - couldn't realistically manage the marketing and business
development needed to support more than one primary rackmount storage product
line - although the reason publicly stated at the time was that it didn't see a
future for hard drives.
And that's how you get to the situation we're
in now for NexGen - of a company with a well publicized past - but which
(for too long) has been unable to pursue the natural marketing and business
development instincts and routes which might have been extrapolated when it
first exited stealth. |
| .. |
MLC flash in
enterprise SSDs
what do
enterprise SSD users want?
High Availability
enterprise SSD arrays
Survive and
thrive guide to enterprise SSDs
Auto-tuning SSD Accelerated
Pools of storage
Decloaking
hidden SSD segments in the enterprise |
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| "I suppose you could
say that NexGen (the foundling iSCSI hybrid rackmount company discovered in the
customer printout and adopted by Fusion-io but then later placed back on the
pavement outside the car park by SanDisk - which didn't want rusty magneto
storage sullying its own visions of rackmount SSD purity) has had some skin in
the game although more as a systems integrator of PCIe SSDs than as an
incubator." |
| Zsolt Kerekes,
editor - StorageSearch.com
- in PCIe SSD news
June 10, 2015 -
re a blog by NexGen about PCIe fabric. | | |
| .. |
 |
| .. |
| NexGen decouples from
Fusion-io accelerator juice with NVMe readiness |
| Editor:- June 30, 2015 - As previously signaled -
NexGen Storage
has decoupled itself from relying on SanDisk's PCIe SSD
product line in its hybrid storage arrays with the
announcement
today that it has introduced NVMe readiness as an update in its software
services. This paves the way for expanding the systems product line with a
wider range of
3rd party internal SSD accelerators having different
price and
workload capabilities. | | |
| .. |
 |
| .. |
| SanDisk spins off NexGen |
Editor:- January 8, 2015 - SanDisk today
clarified that "Hybrid systems incorporating hard-disk drives are not part
of SanDisk's strategic focus."
This strategy direction statement
by Sumit Sadana,
executive VP and chief strategy officer, SanDisk was part of an
announcement
today that SanDisk has completed the spin-out of Fusion-io's
ioControl (hybrid SSD systems) business as a separate company called NexGen Storage.
SanDisk
has agreed to be a supplier of
PCIe flash storage
technology to NexGen but will not maintain an ownership interest.
NexGen
will be led by John
Spiers who was co-founder and CEO of the original NexGen company before
its acquisition
by Fusion-io in April
2013 (for $119 million).
Editor's comments:- In
retrospect Fusion-io's acquisition of NexGen was a mistake.
Fusion
didn't have enough cash or people resources to invest in bootstrapping 2
entirely new systems businesses (one in the fast SSD rackmount market, and the
other (based on NexGen) in the
hybrid SSD appliance
market) at a time when both markets were already becoming much more
specialized
and differentiated.
Can NexGen succeed as a standalone company?
Hundreds of other companies are also competing in the hybrid market
- so you can ask them. Most likely NexGen will get acquired again. | | |
| . |
Justifying the cost of
enterprise SSDs was often muddled and confusing because many vendors used
arguments which were untrue, inconsistent, irrational or lacked data - due to
the fact they didn't understand the customer experience.
What's
changing?
Pricing models which don't depend on perfect information.
|
| Exiting the
Astrological Age of Enterprise SSD Pricing | | |
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