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by Zsolt
Kerekes, editor - StorageSearch.com
- November 14, 2014 |
services which sell SSDs
I recently learned about 2 interesting service products related to SSDs.
They aren't strictly new - as in "launched today" - but they
are interesting examples of a new marketing differentiation trend in the SSD
market - where some companies are making it easier to do business with them - by
offering services which make it easier for more customers to buy their SSDs.
Tegile
IntelliCare
The first of these is a new service offering from
Tegile - called
IntelliCare - which
for me was much more interesting than the new entry level SSD box which they
announced
at the same time.
Tegile collects setup and configuration information
from its user base which enables the company to learn the range of settings -
such as the compression rate - or the ratio of SSD to HDD capacity - or the
raw performance level - used for popular applications.
This crowd
based data (via IntelliCare) can now be leveraged by any user who is setting
up new systems to get a heuristically guided feel for the range of settings and
efficiency expectations which might be realistic for them too.
I
thought that for most users that was a great idea because it removes most of
the burden of coming up with the right answer. And it will provide
confidence to user admins and save time in configuring new systems.
So
the result will be to incrementally improve the user experience of all
Tegile's customers - in a very direct way they can relate too - instead of
indirectly - as for example when enterprise flash array vendors collect
statistics about
endurance in
their boxes - which (by informing the designers how their flash care
schemes are working across the spectrum of real-life apps) mainly benefits
users who buy the next generation of products based on that crowd intelligence.
As
a business development tool for Tegile - it will probably help customer loyalty
(from one system refresh cycle to the next) as well as demonstrably
reducing
the risk of overspend for new customers too.
SanDisk STAR
The
SanDisk Tech
Assisted Refresh program (STAR) -
launched
(September 2014) - simplifies the task for corporates of getting new
notebook SSD
technology sooner, more easily and at lower cost - into their population of
legacy HDD based notebooks. Among other things - the
upgrade program
can be done on site. "Laptops never leave the premises" - which
greatly simplifies security concerns and logistics.
The productivity
benefits of using SSDs in the workplace have been known a long time.
In September 2009 - Intel
chose that as the main theme for their
SSD bookmarks
(educational series) - because Intel said it would give readers an
overview of the "benefits experienced by the enterprise after deploying
notebooks with solid state drives."
SanDisk recently produced a
whitepaper about these benefits to support their STAR program -
TCO
for an SSD-enabled PC (pdf)
However you arrive at justifying a
similar conclusion (SSDs enhance enterprise notebook user productivity) the
point about the new services program is that it cuts out the messy bits of
getting to the end result. And not only does that make it easier to sell more
SSDs - but it makes user organizations more willing to buy.
services
which deter you buying SSDs
On the other hand - the intention of
a new service offering can also be to deter you from buying competitive
SSDs.
This SSD deterrent effect is discussed in a
recent
story concerning Apple on ZDNet which says that a new
version of Apple's OS X won't boot dependably if you have an independently
sourced (non-Apple) SSD as the boot device.
You might say - what's
the surprise? - given that Apple has been making it clear for years it
doesn't like users having 3rd party unbranded hardware inside its products.
Just be thankful that Apple doesn't also insist which power utility you
should use to supply the electrons for their power supplies.
innovation
after years of stagnation?
The
New Data Services - a new blog by Andy Warfield , cofounder
and CTO - Coho Data
makes this observation...
"Here's the sad thing. Data
services in the storage industry haven't changed an awful lot in the (past) 20
years."
Andy goes on to say - however - that he's excited by
new signs of data services innovation in the
cloud. |
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