This week saw the launch of Larry Ellison's new storage company, Pillar Data Systems, who offer a single product for controlling both NAS and SAN data storage systems. The company's Axiom system utilise software and hardware technology to work across both NAS and SAN storage environments, providing Axiom Slammers (storage controllers), Axiom Bricks (storage enclosures housing the disk drives and RAID controllers), and a management system known as Axiom Pilot.
Tony Asaro, an analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group, said, "Supporting both NAS and SAN as peers in a single storage system instead of discrete systems reduces costs and simplifies management."
"Pillar has a very compelling next-generation storage system, a determined investor with deep pockets, and is primarily competing against more expensive, more complicated and less innovative products."