EMC recently announced a new ScaleIO node. If you’ve not heard of ScaleIO it’s an EMC software defined storage solution which can actually be used on servers from most vendors. So think of it as a scale-out, direct attached storage solution. It’s a lot like VMware’s VSAN, except doesn’t require VMware (see what they did there?). I was listening to an episode of the Hot Aisle podcast with Chad Sakac as the guest where they started talking about this solution.
The way Chad put it, which I really like, is that customers can run ScaleIO on any hardware they want. Customers are often perplexed by this and ask the question a few times…will it run on my hardware? Sure. Will it run well on my hardware? Sure. Will it be supported on my hardware? -ish. Will it run better on your hardware? Probably.
I’m paraphrasing here…Chad, as always, says it a lot better than most folks do. So now there is a ScaleIO node, which is being sold under the EMC brand. There will be two flavors…one for folks who need inexpensive capacity and one for those who need some major performance (READ: Flash).
From what I’ve read this is going to be all block storage, which I find interesting. My finger hasn’t been on the pulse of the storage world in a while, but it seems to me it might be time to start including more object storage. Especially in this time of cloudiness and containerization. Probably easier said than done, though.