The 20 Coolest Component Vendors: The 2020 Storage 100

These 20 storage component vendors give software and data the right base on which to operate.

While software is what pushes data here and there, that software and that data need the right base on which to operate.

The manufacturing of hardware and software components continues to thrive as vendors and their customers look for better ways to manage data and find value in it.

Here are the 20 coolest storage component vendors of the 2020 CRN Storage 100.

Arm

Simon Segars

CEO

Arm processors are used in multiple types of systems ranging from servers to IoT as a low-cost alternative to the x86-compatible processors. On the storage side, two of the company’s processors, the Cortex-A for highest performance and the Cortex-R for reliable mission-critical performance, are commonly used.

Atto

Timothy Klein

Co-Founder, President, CEO

Atto works with partners to deliver end-to-end solutions to better store, manage and deliver data. It manufactures host adapters, network adapters, intelligent bridges, Thunderbolt adapters and software, with connectivity to all storage interfaces including Fibre Channel, SAS, SATA, iSCSI, Ethernet, NVMe and Thunderbolt.

Cisco Systems

Chuck Robbins

Chairman, CEO

Cisco's networking expertise extends to the storage industry where its Ethernet, Fibre Channel and SD-WAN technologies help businesses network their storage, including storage with the latest in high-performance capabilities. The company is also a developer of hyper-converged infrastructure with its HyperFlex line.

CRU

Randal Barber

President, CEO

CRU develops rugged and durable Trade Agreements Act-compliant removable storage devices to secure sensitive data for military and government agencies and the digital cinema industry. CRU removable drives may be created in partnership with OEMs, which then integrate them into desktops, workstations, laptops and purpose-built systems.

Excelero

Lior Gal

Co-Founder, CEO

Excelero deliver slow-latency distributed block storage for web-scale applications. The company’s software-defined NVMesh platform pools NVMe storage across networks at local speeds and latencies, letting businesses maximize NVMe utilization, including capacity, performance and endurance, across their infrastructure. It supports any hardware, as well as any network fabrics and protocols.

Formulus Black

Jing Xie

CEO

Formulus Black is the developer of FORSA, a software stack that lets any workload run in memory without modification. FORSA pools physical server memory for use as a high-performance storage media for low-latency and I/O-intensive applications. FORSA can be managed via an intuitive GUI and RESTful APIs.

Intel

Robert Swan

CEO

While Intel is best known for its processors used in servers and storage, the company also offers a wide array of SSDs as well as its Intel Optane memory products for high-performance data storage and access. Intel also offers Virtual RAID on CPU as well as caching acceleration software.

Kanguru

Don Brown

President, CEO

Kanguru provides hardware-encrypted USB devices, portable data storage, secure remote management offerings and drive duplication equipment. Many of its products are FIPS 140-2 and Common Criteria EAL 2+ certified. Its Trade Agreements Act compliance lets it work with government and military clients.

Kingston

John Tu

Co-Founder, CEO

Kingston is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of memory products. The company develops a complete line of SSDs, USB flash drives, memory modules, memory cards and card readers, and embedded storage for personal use as well as for server and data center users, system builders and industrial manufacturers.

Kioxia

Nobuo Hayasaka

President, CEO

Kioxia until October 2019 was known as Toshiba Memory, which itself was spun off from Toshiba Corp. Xioxia is a world leader in memory including SLC NAND flash memory, NAND with integrated controllers, and its 3D BiCS FLASH technology. The company also develops enterprise, data center and client SSDs.

Mellanox Technologies

Eyal Waldman

President, CEO, Director

Mellanox develops end-to-end Ethernet and InfiniBand intelligent interconnect products and services for servers, storage and hyperconverged infrastructure for markets like high-performance computing, enterprise data centers, Web 2.0, cloud, storage, network security and more. Mellanox is in the process of being acquired by Nvidia.

Micron Technology

Sanjay Mehrotra

President, CEO

Micron Technology manufactures a broad portfolio of memory and storage technologies including DRAM and DRAM modules, NAND flash, NOR flash, and 3D XPoint memory. The company also offers memory cards for missionimportant applications, and SSDs for client, enterprise, cloud and industrial use.

NGD Systems

Nader Salessi

Founder, Chairman, CEO

NGD Systems develops high-performance NVMe-based SSDs using a 14nm ASIC-based controller with capacities of up to 64 TB. The company also develops the NGD Systems Newport platform that combines its SSDs with in-situ processing to perform AI and big data management inside a storage device in real time.

Other World Computing

Larry O’Connor

Founder, CEO

Other World Computing, or OWC, started developing memory upgrades to early Apple computers, but is now a developer of a wide range of memory, SD and external storage products. Its SSD product line includes high-performance NVMe SSDs, SSDs specifically for the Mac line, and mSATA bootable SSDs.

Radian Memory Systems

Mike Jadon

Co-Founder, CEO

Radian develops flash storage for data center workloads, including flash-based SSDs and NVRAM-based SSDs. The company also develops Symphonic, which replaces the flash transition layer of SDs with a combination of host-side software libraries and SSD firmware that turns the SSD into an offload accelerator engine.

Samsung

Ki-Nam Kim

Vice Chairman, CEO

The semiconductor business of Samsung builds a wide range of DRAM memory, mobile storage devices and SSDs for client, data center and enterprise storage users. This includes the Samsung PM1643, which at up to 30.72 TB of capacity in a 2.5-inch form factor, offers the world’s largest storage density.

Seagate Technology

Dave Mosley

CEO

Seagate Technology is a world leader in the production of hard drives and SSDs for client, data center, and enterprise use. This includes the Seagate Nytro enterprise SSDs for performance, the Exos enterprise hard drives for capacity and modular storage systems, and the Lyve Drive transportable storage shuttles.

Super Micro Computer

Charles Liang

CEO

Supermicro develops high-performance server and storage technology it sells to business users or to system builders who then add their own value and brand to the platform. It offers general-purpose storage systems, top-loading storage systems for software-defined data centers, and all-flash NVMe systems for advanced computing.

Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corp.

Hiroshi Fukuchi

President, CEO

After the 2019 spinoff of the Kioxia flash memory and SSD business from Toshiba, Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corp. focused on the hard disk drive business. This includes enterprise, mobile and consumer hard drives, including drives optimized for cloud-scale capacity, enterprise capacity and enterprise performance.

Western Digital

David Goeckeler

CEO

Western Digital is one of the world’s top hard drive and SSD manufacturers, with a wide range of drives for PC, data center, and embedded use, targeting high-performance to big data applications. The company also develops storage shelves, storage servers and composable infrastructure.