CRN Interview: Intel's Mike Wall Voices Custom Storage Strategy

CRN: Can you give an example? You mentioned the four-drive SMB NAS. Is that an example of getting into the market with a new type of solution?

Wall: That's an example. I would say that that was done a little bit later than we had hoped. . . .

CRN: I'm asking because there's an awful lot of vendors out there with that kind of solution.

Wall: Here's a little bit of background on our organization. Scott was part of the server group, and one of the founders of the storage whitebox business as part of the server whitebox business. I was running the storage component division, a silicon division. From a silicon perspective, we've been out promoting these types of new categories for years now. We would talk to Scott and his team about participating in solutions.

But now that we're all part of the storage group working on the same strategy, you will see some more breakthrough systems and categories launched by Intel to accelerate the adoption of these new categories and silicon products.

CRN: What are some categories you are looking at?

Peiffer: Continue to expand the entry segment, lower and higher, as we add more features and usability to our small office, home office, and SMB segments.

Wall: When I say new categories, you can look at that two ways: One way can be the type of solution I just referred to, the small-business offices and home. Also, [you can look] at how this device can be utilized. We partner with different suppliers to add different types of capabilities on that hardware platform.

CRN: Can you give me an example of that?

Peiffer: Sure, our Compass Creek platform, product code SSR212CC, that is a generic storage server that we're doing some certifications with Microsoft for Windows Storage Server, with FalconStor for IPstore, with Open-E as an iSCSI target. There are a number of applications being validated with our platform to help take it from a server to a storage system at multiple levels of integration.

Wall: Just to clarify Scott's point, Compass Creek is a hardware-only platform that we're putting out there for folks to load their own software or develop their own software. At the same time, we have our whitebox solutions that come with a NAS stack or a SAN stack. We're doing both. But with the hardware-only solution, we're creating an environment where lots of smaller companies that have not had the opportunity to have a world-class hardware platform, to develop and even productize their solutions and have access to it on a big way.

CRN: Intel recently signed an OEM deal with EMC, resulting in the SSR212PP, or Pyramid Peak, which just started shipping. If a channel partner configures it for a customer, the customer essentially will have an EMC AX150 without the EMC name, right?

Peiffer: Yes. With Intel customer support.

CRN: Any other technologies that Intel developed or is working on with partners that will broaden the reach of Intel's storage boxes similar to the EMC technology?

Peiffer: None that we're able to talk about at this time.

CRN: For the rest of the year, what are some things that we can expect from Intel in terms of product directions?

Wall: There'll probably be some news on new silicon products, several of those. I expect there will be another new platform or two based on those silicon products. And we are working with a few third parties to integrate, as we mentioned earlier, new usage models that would enhance our solutions. So really, whether its an application, a silicon, or a whitebox, you'll see announcements in all areas.

CRN: New silicon? Can you give me any hints?

Wall: It's really cool stuff. More features and more performance than anything we've had in the past. It'll deliver the best price-performance. I know that's kind of corny, but that's about as far as I can go now.

CRN: When you say new silicon, are you talking storage-specific silicon, or about making use of Intel's existing microprocessors or other controllers?

Wall: We're talking about storage-specific, because we're totally focused on storage. And utilizing mainstream silicon as well. One reason we brought this group together is on the silicon side, to work closely with storage providers in the marketplace to understand their feature requirements over time. One of the key things we've learned is, a lot of things that come to fruition in the server marketplace are actually required in the storage marketplace early on. Things like 64-bit support. And so, we're looking to understand more about customers' storage requirements, integrate those into our system-level technology and our chipsets going forward, and put those into mass production.