NetApp CEO: All-Flash Arrays Primed To Take Over Large Part Of Storage Market

When it comes to the all-flash storage market, NetApp President and CEO George Kurian is unconcerned with being first to market.

’When we look at technology trends, it doesn’t always mean that the first to market is the winner,’ Kurian said.

’When we look at what a new technology does, we want to time it to the first to mainstream market. What does that mainstream market look for in terms of business value, customer requirements, and the readiness of the underlying technology?’ he said.

Kurian spoke to The Channel Company about the company's role in all-flash array technology nearly a year after the Sunnyvale, California-based company acquired all-flash storage systems leader SolidFire.

He said after a long road of development in the technology, NetApp’s all-flash solid state product line is primed to take over a large part of the overall storage market.

’Solid state today is ready for taking over primary workloads in the customers' data centers,’ Kurian said.

That doesn’t mean all-flash will be the only solution out there – but it will have impact.

’There’s still a place for archival, there’s still a place for capacity-oriented storage. But all of performance-oriented storage will move to solid state and that’s a substantially larger market than what people have forecasted,’ Kurian said.