Isilon Leader in Scale-Out File-Based Storage WW Market – IDC

The content for this article is excerpted from the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Out File-Based Storage 2012 Vendor Analysis, by Amita Potnis and Ashish Nadkarni (Doc # 238923).

The IDC MarketScape vendor assessment for the scale-out file-based storage market represents IDC’s assessment on which vendors are well positioned today through current capabilities and which are best positioned to gain market share over the next few years. Positioning in the upper right of the grid indicates that vendors are well positioned to gain market share. For the purposes of discussion, IDC divided potential key strategy measures for success into two primary categories: capabilities and strategies.

              IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Scale-Out
              File-Based Storage Vendor Assessment

Note: This IDC MarketScape is an evaluation of scale-out file-based vendors.
(Source: IDC, 2012)

Positioning on the y-axis reflects the vendor’s current capabilities around scale-out file-based storage and how well aligned it is to customer needs. The capabilities category focuses on the capabilities of the vendor and product today, here and now. Under this category, IDC analysts will look at how well a vendor is building/delivering capabilities that enable it to execute its chosen strategy in the market. Positioning on the x-axis, or strategies axis, indicates how well the vendor’s future strategy aligns with what customers will require in three to five years.

The strategies category focuses on high-level strategic decisions and underlying assumptions about offerings, customer segments, business, and go-to-market plans for the future, in this case defined as the next 18 months. Under this category, analysts look at whether or not a supplier’s strategies in various areas are aligned with customer requirements (and spending) over a defined future time period.

EMC Leader in this IDC MarketScape
EMC has consistently dominated the storage space for several years. It has been able to do so by identifying upcoming trends and bringing to market timely and appropriate storage solutions. It has also benefited from strategic alliances and acquisitions to enhance its portfolio, giving it an edge over its competition. The acquisitions of Data Domain and Isilon have specifically served EMC well, increasing its market share in a very short time.

EMC’s portfolio encompasses a variety of storage products for the entry, midrange, and enterprise levels that serve numerous use cases. EMC’s backbone for the scale-out file-based storage segment is Isilon. EMC acquired Isilon in late 2010 and positions Isilon’s unique clustered architecture for customers that face rapid growth of data, high bandwidth needs, and high availability demands.

EMC positions Isilon as its solution for scale-out NAS for big data storage and maintains that Isilon’s products are simple to install, manage, and scale. Isilon offers automated storage tiering using an automated policy engine known as SmartPools. Using SmartPools, additional nodes can be added and data can be restriped across these nodes non disruptively. EMC has leveraged its laser focus and mindshare in the marketplace to significantly expand Isilon’s market share in the past two years.

Keeping in mind growing customer demands, EMC enhanced and recently released Isilon’s OneFS 7.0 OS. OneFS 7.0 provides users added data protection, interoperability, and security features such as compliance with SEC 17a-4 requirements for tamper-proof data protection, roles-based administration to prevent unauthorized changes to files, and the creation of isolated storage pools with authentication zones. As with previous versions of Isilon’s operating environment, OneFS 7.0 allows multiple Isilon nodes to be managed as if they were a single shared storage pool with a maximum single file volume up to 15.5PB over 144 nodes. It also offers REST-based API for customers and third-party vendors to write to and support for VAAI and VASA. These features are specifically targeted to address the needs of big data.

EMC has stopped short of pushing iSCSI support for new installations, referring block data support over to VNX and VMAX in the EMC portfolio. Isilon will continue to support iSCSI installations in its installed base. Currently, EMC is predominantly focused on file-based storage with its Isilon products.