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  5. EMC VFCache: Project Lightning Strikes: Page 4 of 4
Data Centers

EMC VFCache: Project Lightning Strikes: Page 4 of 4

EMC's recent announcement of the culmination of the code-named Project Lightning resulted in the new VFCache solution, a server-based flash cache, which may be used as a complement or alternative to flash storage that appears as if it were a disk drive. This lightning strikes twice, though not in the same spot. The first is dramatically improved I/O performance for customers and the second is the challenge that VFCache brings to competitors trying to distinguish their own flash storage solutions
DAVID HILL
February 13, 2012

Narrow technical arguments aside, some competitors may differentiate themselves by their configuration (such as being able to share flash cache among multiple servers) or their market focus (such as accelerating big data adoption).

Still, the challenge for all these players is share of mind. EMC knows its customers and has access to them for a full-court press. And its installed base is likely to be where EMC will focus. The reason is that although VFCache is storage agnostic, most sales will be targeted (SSD storage specifically) rather than part of a general sales focus (such as storage arrays).

Along with the rest of the IT infrastructure, storage is in transition. Even though the per unit of SSD storage cost is higher than that of the fastest disk drives, prices are falling and SSD usage is increasing in popularity since the technology provides levels of performance that HDDs cannot easily or cost-effectively provide. Increasingly high performance (15K RPM) drives will be replaced by SSDs when performance is needed, while capacity (lower RPM speeds but higher density than 15K RPM drives) disks for random-access to less frequently accessed and performance demanding data will continue to be used.

The question remains of exactly where SSD storage, in the sense of flash storage, should be placed. The initial thought was that it would simply be used as another tier (tier 0) with a storage array, but it has become increasingly obvious that placing flash storage more strategically (for the majority of use cases) delivers better performance for the same investment. EMC's VFCache announcement confirms this point, as does the company's upcoming server-network-based flash appliance. The SSD market has already been a hot one and EMC's announcement is sure to make it even hotter.

EMC is a current client of David Hill and the Mesabi Group.

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