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NexGen logoNexGen Storage

(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.
..
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Decloaking hidden SSD segments in the enterprise
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90% of the enterprise SSD companies which you know have no good reasons to survive.
this way to market consolidation
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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.
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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.
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SSD ad - click for more info
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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.
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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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