by Jeffrey B. Layton
The SuperComputing Conference/Exhibition is always a great conference for learning about storage trends in the HPC world. This year the alert attendee could spot two emerging trends: smaller companies developing innovative storage solutions and the rise of flash storage units.

Larger companies, particularly in the HPC space, are not necessarily the hot-bed of storage development they once were. Much of this revolves around the financial realities of running a business exacerbated by the economics of the past year.

Several years ago larger HPC companies could invest huge sums of money into the development of HPC products, including storage. Since economic conditions were much better than today, they could take some risks on new products and develop leading-edge technologies or even risky technologies. Now companies have to seriously think about the return on investment on new products - What is the market? How large is the market? What will the market pay? What is the competition? All of these questions have to be addressed before a product can be launched forcing once very innovative companies to rethink launching new products. Consequently, customers may turn to much smaller companies when they are looking for innovative HPC storage solutions.

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