EMC: 'Nope', XtremIO won't link to back-end arrays

Possible Tucci successors hinted at also

Not being happy with an interview write-up, EMC VP and Global Marketing CTO Chuck Hollis rewrote it in his blog with what he considered to be the right answers. This provided new information, to us, about EMC's coming XtremIO networked flash storage array.

Answering the question if it will be possible to connect disk arrays to the XtremIO platform, Chuck Hollis writes:-

No. For example, Isilon does scale-out for files. We need a scale-out block device for flash. That's where XtremIO fits. Now within flash we have tiers, MLC, SLC. So there's potential of tiering in the flash world but there's no disk arrays. (Note: VMAX supports the connection of external disk arrays, as do other EMC products such as VPLEX).

The XtremIO product won't be integrated as a cache device with storage tiers behind it:

Nope, pure flash, no need for tiering. And because we have native de-dupe, the costs are pretty good. (Note: if someone wanted this, it would be either FAST as found in VMAX and VNX, the upcoming Project Thunder or perhaps VFcache).

The XtremIO product will probably be announced early in the second half of 2013.

Hollis said EMC sees "an opportunity to bring flash technology to HPC (high performance computing)":

Right now we're assembling things out of a VNX portfolio because it's closer to what HPC needs. But we have a lot of potential pieces, something like eight different boards, six different stacks, a lot of potential ingredients. Our current HPC solution is basically a flash-cache plus a VNX with a lot of flash in it. It's very good at check pointing.

Hollis also identifies potential successors to Joe Tucci, EMC's CEO:

"Dave Goulden, Pat Gelsinger, Howard Elias, Jeremy Burton, Paul Maritz, every one could be the next guy." ®