Diskeeper and SanDisk Team Up To Take On NVELO

SanDisk has had a very busy few days, flexing its muscle and letting the world know its intent to power into the consumer and client OEM SSD market in a big way.

After the announcement of the Extreme SATA 3 SSD and the X100 series, they have announced today a strategic partnership with Diskeeper to exclusively license their SSD caching software products. These SSD caching products are designed to improve system performance and boot time in dual-drive configurations.

Diskeeper has developed ExpressCache and NowOn as complete software solutions for both home users and OEM usage. These tools will allow for high performance SSD caching of HDD data. The result is the fusion of the SSD speed with the capacity and price points of HDDs. The new software will be sold both individually and as bundled packages for the consumer segment.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this collaboration between these two large companies is the fact that this will align them perfectly to compete with other SSD caching solutions from other manufacturers, with the notable difference of having their own solution. Currently NVELO has dominated this field in the consumer arena, with several companies licensing their software for caching with a wide range of SSD products.

This wholesale adoption of NVELO can be a point of weakness for other competitors, as it does not afford them with a unique solution to differentiate their product from other manufacturers. If the ExpressCache and NowOn software works better than NVELO’s software, this could be a huge win for SanDisk.

The data caching segment is heating up, with UltraBooks and other mobile devices exploding into the market. SanDisk has wisely delivered a complete solution for jumping into the consumer market, releasing both the new consumer SSD product line and a new caching solution simultaneously. This assures that their bases are covered.

Amazingly, SanDisk hasn’t stopped there! As if the recent purchase of Pliant wasn’t enough to signal that SanDisk is fully committed to moving into the enterprise SSD market, they also announced today that they are integrating an OEM caching solution into their product line by purchasing FlashSoft.

In effect SanDisk has again pulled a double-whammy with this approach. They have leveraged Pliants IP and integrated Enterprise SSDs into their arsenal, with an expected PCIe NAND solution imminent as well. It is no coincidence that the FlashSoft solution can work with either approach interchangeably in an enterprise environment.

SanDisk has certainly engineered a shocking coup d’etat with the simultaneous unveiling of consumer and OEM segment SSDs and accompanying caching solutions for each. They have certainly assured that they have complete products for both segments, and with their experience and leadership position in the memory space, they will certainly be a force to reckon with. One surely shouldn’t forget the fact that SanDisk is a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 stalwart.

These are the types of moves that many have foreseen for many months, as the heavyweights bring their guns to bear in the SSD market. As more of the long-established companies with deep pockets come into the market look for the pace of innovation to only grow more frantic!

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