the Top 25 SSD Companies - Q3 2015based on based on search metrics
in Q3 2015
by
Zsolt Kerekes,
editor - StorageSearch.com
- January 7, 2016 |
Who are the top SSD
companies? - the companies which you absolutely have to look at if
you've got any new projects involving SSDs? - Here they are in the list
below.
For the series overview, links to earlier editions of this
list and an outline of our market proven methodology
click here.
In
this quarter (34th in this series) we saw the start of momentous changes in
the SSD market as you can see in the archived SSD news and linked articles
from that period. What's new?
- SanDisk
is the new #1 SSD company - replacing Diablo - which had
been at the top of the list for the 4 preceding quarters.
- The list of companies outside the top 25 has been extended. So in effect
you can now see the top 40 SSD companies. That can be useful in anticipating and
understanding changes in other quarters as they relate to market events.
|
| the Top 25 SSD Companies -
Q3 2015 |
1 - SanDisk - up 1 place
If
you only sampled what was going on in the SSD market twice in the past 8 years
- the first time in Q3
2007 - when SanDisk was #1 in this list (based on news about its enterprise
SSDs) and then glanced back again today - you might not be terribly
surprised. What's changed?
But this has been a long journey for SanDisk
and for the SSD industry as the tides of market change have been washing away
the previous best beauty spots and redefining the SSD landscape with an
impersonal power which resembles lunar forces.
And (as the
history of this list shows) acquiring highly ranked SSD companies - while
beneficial in the medium term - doesn't lead to instant benefits.
BTW -
SanDisk's ascent to the #1 slot in this quarter was based on search metrics
which closed more than 3 weeks before the acquisition announcement with WDC
October 22, 2015.
2 - Diablo
Technologies - down 1 place
Mid way through the quarter - the
SSD industry learned that at least 2 other heavyweight companies had product
plans which included the
memory channel
SSD niche which had been - upto that point - exclusively associated
with Diablo.
A counter swing in Diablo's favor (in this quarter) was
its launch into the flash as tiered DRAM market - with its Memory1 product. For
more about this - see the contemporaneous article -
DIMM wars in
SSD servers how significant is Diablo's Memory1 for the enterprise data
ecosystem?
But the illusion of a single supplier or technology
straddling these markets with a sustainable dominant market position was
seriously called into question soon after this quarter ended with 9
SSD vendors having made related announcements by the close of
2015 -
concerned with SSD DIMM wars and retiring and retiering enterprise DRAM. (Big idea #3 in SSD
year 2015).
As a result the SSD reader focus on memory channel
SSDs itself having collapsed in
reader popularity
in December 2015 - due to growing confusion and re-interpretation of this as a
much more fragmented technology space than it had first appeared to be.
(Reported here later in January 2016).
Diablo had upto this point been
strongly associated with the memory channel SSD concept in a similar way that
Fusion-io had been
associated with the creation of the enterprise PCIe SSD accelerator market 8
years earlier.
But, unlike Fusion-io, Diablo didn't succeed in
establishing a compellingly strong partner ecosystem - before its space came
under heavy competitive attack.
This was mostly due to a long
period (over a year) of legal wrangling over patents which left potential
partners sitting on the sidelines and uncomfortable about investing too many
resources into an idea which stood at jeopardy of legal rulings which could
have pulled the plug on the whole idea.
This "wait and see"
period - helped competitors close the initial technology leadership gap during a
period when Diablo was restrained by the courts from expanding its business
development.
3 - Micron
- up 10 places.
In mid July - I noticed a spike of reader interest in
Micron which was so significant that I wrote about it (and the causes) at the
time.
4 - HGST
- same as before
In
August 2015 -
HGST demonstrated an InfiniBand memory fabric using
PCM
(phase-change memory).
5 - Seagate
- same as before
In
August 2015 -
Seagate said
would acquire Dot
Hill Systems for $694 million.
6 - OCZ
- down 3 places
In this quarter OCZ launched another new consumer SSD
range - the Trion 100 - with a 3 year warranty.
7 - Violin
Memory - up 2 places
Sometimes in this series - as we saw with
STEC in its final years
- SSD companies which once dominated market attention for positive business
reasons - retain high visibility as their businesses decline. This is due to
stakeholders trying to figure out if they have hot rock bottom yet or have any
untapped upcycling potential.
see also:-
rackmount SSDs
8 - EMC -
up 12 places
EMC was the 2nd fastest climber in the list in this
quarter.
This sampling period (Q3 - July, August, September) was
before the October 13, 2015 announcement that Dell had agreed to buy EMC.
9 - Kaminario
- up 3 places
This is Kaminario's best rank in the more than 5 years it
has appeared in this series.
In this quarter Kaminario provided more
visibility into its customer base usage profiles with the statement that 97% of
its customers were writing to their AFAs under 1 DWPD. This was the
justification for a new 3D TLC based model supported by a 7 years endurance
related systems warranty.
10 - Pure
Storage - same as before
In
August 2015 -
Pure Storage filed documents with the SEC for its IPO - which revealed many
interesting details about the company's revenue and customer base.
11 -
Intel - up 5
places
In this quarter Intel announced it would enter the DIMM wars
markets (targeting both
memory channel
SSD and
SCM)
with a non volatile memory technology called 3D XPoint /
Optane
developed in partnership with
Micron with sampling
expected in 2016.
12 - Western
Digital - re-entry to the list
Western Digital was the fastest
climber in this edition of the Top SSD Companies - up more than 15 places
13 - Tegile
Systems - down 5 places.
In this quarter Tegile launched a new
storage box called IntelliFlash HD based on
SanDisk's InfiniFlash
SSD hardware box and Tegile's software which can provide 0.5 petabytes of
uncompressed flash capacity in 3U.
Back in
March 2015,
commenting on the launch of InfiniFlash I said - "The availability of
cheap, raw, white box rackmount SSDs like this from SanDisk, HGST and other
vendors may put some pressure on traditional storage vendors to justify why they
charge so much for - what in most cases - are in reality vanilla flash arrays
with some added software features."
In the same news story - I
also named Tegile as a vendor which (while having creatively priced
functionality) would need to react to the cost assumptions set by the
InfiniFlash platform.
Which is what they did.
See also:-
the
whys, wherefores and roadmap to enterprise SSD consolidation
14 - Samsung
- same as before
Samsung didn't make any significant SSD announcements
in this quarter. But in an
educational
paper revealed more about the technology and reliability aspects of its 32
layer V-nand.
15 - InnoDisk
- same as before
see also:-
industrial SSDs
16 - BiTMICRO
- up 5 places
see also:-
PCIe SSDs,
rackmount SSDs
17 - Foremay
- up 2 places
Foremay didn't make any significant SSD product
announcements in this quarter.
see also:-
military SSDs
18 -
Nimbus Data -
same as before
In this quarter Nimbus was one of the AFA vendors
shortlisted for comparison by DCIG
in a market report discussed here in
September 2015.
Also
Nimbus was one of only two AFA vendors in the Top 20 SSD Companies which was
still privately owned (the other being
Kaminario).
19 - Microsemi
- down 12 places
In this quarter Microsemi launched 3 new secure
rugged SSD products in 2.5", mSATA and XMC form factors.
see
also:-
military SSDs
20 - Virtium
- down 14 places
see also:-
industrial SSDs
21 - Cactus
Technologies - down 14 places
see also:-
industrial SSDs
22 -
Marvell - same
as before
see also:-
SSD controllers
23 - RunCore
- same as before
24 -Toshiba
- up 11 places
25 - IBM
- down 8 places
Who were the SSD companies just outside this list?
The
next 15 companies (listed in ranking order) were:-
For more like this take a look at these resources:-
Footnotes
The rankings above were based
on analzying the SSD related search activity of our readers referred from
over 112,000 servers during the sampling period in Q3 2015 (July, August and
September). | | |
| . |
 |
| . |
| It looks like you're seriously interested
in SSDs so if you've got the time - you might also want to take a look at
the home page of StorageSearch.com
which - unlike most home pages - also includes some real content. |
| . |
| About the publisher -
founded in 1991 |
| . |
|
| |
.... |
 |
the Top SSD Companies
| |
| .. |
|
|
.. |
|
|
| .. |
SSD news
SSD history
VCs in SSDs
market research
DWPD - state of the market
Imprinting the brain of
the SSD
the Top
SSD Companies - series overview
about the publisher - 24
years guiding the enterprise
consolidation
in enterprise flash arrays - why? when? analysis |
| .. |
more
funding and
a new CEO for Diablo -
SSD news (January 12, 2016) | |
.... |
 |
.. |
RAM used to mean
components:- SRAM, DRAM etc.
Now after 8 years (of the PCIe SSD
learning curve experience) we have to rethink the RAM concept.
RAM
is whatever the software thinks is RAM.
And it doesn't just live in
DIMM sockets.
Or even have to live in the same cabinet. |
| what's
RAM really? | | |
.... |
 |
.... |
|
|
.... |
Editor:- July 16, 2015 - If you saw the news a few days ago you won't be
too surprised to learn that Micron was the #1 most researched SSD company by
StorageSearch.com readers in the first half of July. |
|
(1st month of the sampling period for this quarter) | | |
.... |
 |
.... |
Editor:- August 21, 2015 - Explaining why 3D TLC is good enough -
Kaminario says its HealthShield - "has been collecting endurance
statistics for the past few years, and from analyzing the data we see that 97%
of (our) customers are writing less than a single write per day (under 1 DWPD)
of the entire capacity." |
|
(2nd month of the sampling period for this quarter) | | |
.... |
 |
.... |
Editor:- September 30, 2015 - It's not DCIG's fault that the enterprise
SSD market resembles at times the navigational uncertainty of Lost in Space
(original tv series) when in the very first episode the rocket gets hit by a
meteor storm.
|
|
(3rd month of the sampling period for this quarter) | | |
.... |
 | |
