EMC Flaunts Flash

LAS VEGAS -- Flash memory technology will revolutionize the storage industry, offering a greener, high-performance alternative to traditional rotating disk technology, predicts EMC CEO Joe Tucci.

If there’s one thing that will change the storage industry in the next five to ten years, it’s the advent of flash technology,” he said during a keynote at EMC World yesterday.

Earlier this year EMC was the first major storage vendor to throw its weight behind flash memory-based Solid State Disks (SSDs), deploying the technology in its Symmetrix system.

Data access speeds on flash memory drives are typically much faster than rotating magnetic media, eliminating I/O bottlenecks, hence its growing popularity.

The technology will also enable vendors to squeeze more performance out of smaller drives, according to Tucci. “It will allow us to use smaller drives per energy usage,” said the CEO, during a Q&A with journalists yesterday afternoon. “It’s much more power efficient.”EMC is not the only vendor talking up flash technology, and rival HDS announced support for Flash-based drives yesterday.

Despite all the vendor hype surrounding flash memory, the major stumbling block for the technology remains its cost, although EMC predicts that it could achieve price parity with rotating Fibre Channel drives by the end of 2010.

“As we get this technology to start to scale, the prices will come down,” said Tucci, explaining that EMC’s involvement will help this process. “We have got to start the journey somewhere -- the cost will come out quickly.

The CEO also touched on the subject of EMC’s secretive 'Maui' technology during his Q and A session yesterday. There have been rumors that EMC was struggling to develop Maui, although Tucci confirmed that the clustered file system offering will be launched sometime in the summer.

The Maui software will sit on top of ‘Hulk’, a top secret hardware platform developed specifically for Web 2.0, which EMC first discussed last year, he explained.“You can run Maui on other hardware platforms other than Hulk,” said Tucci, adding that there will be a “major” Hulk announcement at the time of the Maui launch in the summer.

The EMC CEO was also quizzed on his firm’s long-term plans for its VMware subsidiary, following recent speculation that the company may sell off more of the virtualization trailblazer. “We have no plans to do anything else than continue to own 86 percent of VMware,” he said. “EMC is running well; VMware is running well.”

Inevitably, the subject of the economy cropped up during Tucci’s talk. EMC successfully beat analyst estimates in its most recent financial results, although the CEO admitted that things could be better.

“We have seen [a slowdown], primarily in the enterprise market,” he said, in response to a journalist’s question. “But last year we grew the U.S. business nine percent year over year, a little slower than the prior year.”

The CEO explained that EMC is still seeing growth opportunities in the storage market, but also voiced caution about the overall state of the economy.“I don’t see the economy improving anytime soon, but I don’t see it getting any worse,” he said.

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