Isilon's not alone in claiming a boom in rich-content customers.
Competitors BlueArc Corp., Exanet Inc., ONStor Inc., Panasas Inc., and Xiotech Corp. also claim new accounts.
Indeed, the "neo-NAS" segment is enjoying a rush of funding. Isilon recently scored $20 million in funding (see Isilon Lays On $20M Icing). BlueArc got $15 million (see BlueArc Pulls In $15M More). And OnStor's received $25 million (see OnStor OnTap for $24M ).
As the market heats up, observers predict a shakeout. It's also unlikely that NetApp and EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) will sit by waiting for younger companies to overtake them in key accounts.
There's no doubt, though, that Isilon and company have stolen a march on their bigger rivals by moving to fill important gaps (see NAS Deals Fall Short). Both NetApp and EMC are still offering partial support for global namespace, for example. NetApp says it will provide global namespace in 2006. And while EMC still doesn't have global namespace for the entire NAS, the vendor has expanded the space in which large clumps of files can be managed as one virtual entity (see EMC Launches High-End NAS).
Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch
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