The big players in storage are being forced to partner with new, disruptive startups because of their innovation in the software field, it is claimed.
Atlantis Computing has just released its latest software product, Atlantis ILIO USX, which allows users to boost the potential of their existing datacentre investment.
The solution create pools of storage from storage area networks (SAN), network-attached storage (NAS) and direct-attached storage (DAS) once it is deployed in a VMWare virtual machine manager.
Atlantis claims the product enables customers to deploy up to five times more VMs on any data centre storage kit, and Atlantis marketing VP, Gregg Holzrichter, told CBR the firm’s approach means industry stalwarts like Netapp have almost no choice but to adopt the solution.
"Hardware companies have a need to innovate and the best way for them to do that is to put our software on top of their hardware," he said.
"Netapp are focusing on building good hardware and so I think that the innovation is going to have to come on hardware performance. Software intelligence is going to have to come from a different part of the stack.
"People are looking for ways to reduce the overall cost of storage. These trends happening will pressure storage vendors significantly. The existing players are under threat from a lot of these [innovations]."
Holzrichter said Atlantis has reselling agreements for its solutions with HP and Dell, while Netapp has been testing the products.
