Datera, the high-end software-defined storage vendor, has signed an OEM deal with Fujitsu, initially covering Europe and Japan.
Datera’s Data Services Platform is a scale-out virtual SAN storage software that supports bare metal servers, virtual machines and containers. It provides block and object access and is an alternative to traditional SANs and hyperconverged infrastructure systems.
Until now Fujitsu has been one of many sources of server hardware on which to run Datera’s software. It will now integrate the software into its own product set and bring it the global market. This makes Datera CEO Guy Churchward happy: “This agreement with Fujitsu… opens an additional pathway to take our leading platform to new markets.”
Datera also has an OEM relationship with HPE, which bundles its software with ProLiant DL360 servers.
Fujitsu motivation
What’s Fujitsu’s motivation here? It has Eternus storage arrays and server-based hyperconverged and converged infrastructure products in its portfolio. The reasoning is that many customers are moving away from complex SAN arrays and towards server-based storage.
Ashwin Shankar, a Fujitsu marketing manager for server products, wrote in March: “With the explosive growth in unstructured data, organisations are struggling to nail down a storage method that is easy to implement and upgrade, and that allows them to maximise capacity utilisation.[Traditional storage arrays] are often expensive, complex and lack openness…Server-based storage solutions reduce cost and complexity.”
Fujitsu server-based hyperconverged (HCI) and converged infrastructure products include:
- Fujitsu Nutanix Enterprise Cloud on PRIMERGY x86 servers running Nutanix’s Acropolis OS and Prism management software
- PRIMEFLEX for Storage Spaces Direct
- PRIMEFLEX for VMware VSAN
Also, the company has a deal with NetApp concerning NFLEX, a converged infrastructure system with pre-integrated and tested Fujitsu PRIMERGY servers, NetApp storage and Extreme networking components. Fujitsu also has a data fabric partnership with NetApp to link Fujitsu edge servers to data centre and public cloud resources using ONTAP data management software.
Why does it need a server-based storage deal with Datera? Datera would say its software is an alternative to high-end SANs whereas mainstream HCI is for SMB and mid-range enterprise needs. We think Datera’s container support is a key point for Fujitsu.
