Intel today announced that they will no longer manufacture future generations of Optane SSDs. For those of you that don’t know Optane, it is one brand of storage class memory (SCM) that we use to build our disaggregated and shared everything architecture, the VAST Data Platform.
Since Intel first introduced SCM, there have been many alternatives from vendors including Samsung and Kioxia. As a result, we made the decision to implement a multisource supply chain over a year ago for the VAST Data Platform. Read my blog here. These other SCM sources pull from their conventional flash supply chain and manufacturing processes and therefore benefit from the economies of scale that flash manufacturers get when making this new version of flash-based SCM.
As a leader in the marketplace, we have a dual vendor supply chain strategy for everything that we do. This is a strategy that proved crucial during the supply chain shortages over the past 18 months, and is instrumental in surviving specific vendor decisions like we saw today with Intel.
For our current and future customers, let me be clear: this will not cause any disruption in our ability to supply and support the VAST Data Platform. Nothing will change.
We have a guaranteed supply chain of alternatives that have equivalent endurance and performance characteristics to Intel Optane. From a customer experience perspective, there will be no difference in the system’s performance. We’re also collaborating with our flash partners to create groundbreaking concepts that we look forward to announcing in the future.
As always, I’m happy to answer any questions…
