新的一周，新的旅程…

新的一周，新的旅程…

Neil Cameron

       刚刚结束了一周的印度之行（此行的目的地是班加罗尔），印度的飞速发展与增长再次给我留下了深刻的印象。那里的高科技行业日新月异，软件与硬件行业推出的种种崭新的解决方案堪称全球罕见。

       此外，印度人在我接触过的种群中也最为热情友好，这让我离家的时间不太那么难过（受到如此欢迎时不免感觉好很多）。

    　此次旅行的任务（当然！）是向客户介绍PMC的RAID和HBA产品，但也有人给我上了一课。

      当时讨论的话题是SSD的市场接受度，我的观点是由于SSD在价格与性能上的明显优势，应该是彻底将15K SAS HDD逐出了市场。“什么？价格优势？！”——这是与我交谈的客户的直接反应。当时我的想法是，我开口前是不是应该先确认一下真实数据…可这确实是基于我在澳大利亚所观察到的事实啊——SSD确实比SAS硬盘具备价格优势，也确实基本上一举囊括了15K SAS HDD市场（同时还重创了10K SAS HDD市场）。

　　但是在印度，恰如在中国，核心的问题正是价格。并不是说SSD的价格吓死人的高，而是SAS HDD的价格比在我的老家要便宜了许多。相形之下，SAS HDD因此还是拥有可观的价格优势，故而维持了其在市场上的存在。

　　话说回来，即便SAS HDD价格十分低廉，但其能耗及散热仍然让印度的数据中心头痛不已，利用SSD来取代SAS HDD还是会带来总拥有成本（TCO）的改善，因此仍然有其吸引力。

　　这番谈话让我不得不琢磨硬盘厂家打的到底是什么算盘…他们是在澳大利亚高价出售SAS HDD，还是把过时的老硬盘丢到发展中国家的市场，从而维持其高额利润？我知道这听起来有点疑神疑鬼，多疑也并非我的习惯，但我依然意识到这已经成为了在印度发展高性能数据中心的一个障碍。

印度的IT市场增速惊人。我不清楚Gartner等机构的官方数据如何，但在印度新总理Mr. Modi的引领下，这个国家在基础设施以及IT和软件方面等领域均在蓬勃发展。

      行业里许多同仁对不同国家的高科技发展周期及演进所怀的见解难免偏颇…常常会不自觉地将美国置于金字塔的顶端——认为美国同行才是高科技行业中的发明者与领军人物。虽然这些观点也不无道理，但当我在班加罗尔市中心不起眼的一座楼房中访问客户，发现他们利用自主创造的软件将PMC新推出的Flashtec加速设备(http://pmcs.com/products/storage/flashtec_nvram_drives/)付诸应用，实现了能够负荷Perabyte的系统时，自然会感觉到“以貌取人”的谬误，并深切意识到，在世界其他地区，还有许多杰出的人材领导着云基础设施的开发与性能提升，而并非只是那些呆在美国豪华办公间里的大人物们在驱动着业界的前进。

　　很遗憾，印度也象其他一些地区一样，出于价格的考虑，还要经历向SSD转化的同样漫长而痛苦的过程。

　　我几乎等不及了，希望三个月快快过去，好再去看看那里又发生了怎样天翻地覆的变化。

 

Anotherweek, another trip …

    Just finishing up a week in India(Bangalore this time around), and once again I’ve been nothing but impressed at the rapid rate of growth and development in this country. The IT industry is booming over here, and the Indian IT industry is charging ahead with software and hardware solutions that match anything I’ve seen in my travels.

     On top of that they are the most friendly and welcoming people I know, which makes a week away from home alittle less painful (when you feel so welcome).

     I’m back in India talking tocustomers about RAID and HBA products (what’s new), however had a bit of aneye-opener yesterday.We were discussing the uptake of SSD, and how in my opinion they should be wiping out the 15K SAS HDD market due to pricing and performance advantages.

      What? Pricing advantage? (that camefrom the customer I was talking to). Suppose I should have checked my facts before opening my mouth (bad habit), but I was working on the basis of what Isee in Australia … that SSDs are price competitive with SAS hard drives, andare in fact pretty much wiping out the 15K SAS HDD market (and hurting 10K SASHDD pretty badly as well).

      But in India, just as in China, the problem here is price. It’s not that the SSDs are drastically expensive, it’s more like the fact that SAS HDD seem to be far cheaper than they are at home. So they still hold a good price advantage ofSSD, and that’s keeping the SAS HDD in the marketplace longer than it should be (imho).

      However,even though they are cheaper to buy, with the power consumption and heat generation of SAS HDD being a major problem in Indian datacenters, there is stillroom for discussion regarding the TCO of using SSD in place of SAS HDD.

      It just makes me wonder what the drive vendors are up to … are they (a) ripping us offin Australia with high prices on SAS HDD, or (b) dumping older technologydrives into the growing marketplaces to keep their profit margins high? Nowthat sounds cynical, and I could never be accused of being that, but I can see this as a barrier to developing high-performance datacenters in this country.

      Many colleagues in the industry havea somewhat biased view of different country’s IT lifecycle and development …and always seem to put the US at the top of the tree … thinking they are theinnovators and leaders in this industry. While that may be true to some extent,when you visit a customer in a small building in downtown Bangalore, to find they are developing Petabyte-capable systems using their own innovative software and are implementing our new Flashtec acceleration devices (http://pmcs.com/products/storage/flashtec_nvram_drives/), you realise thatlooks count for little, and that maybe, just maybe, there are some brilliant minds in other parts of the world who are leading the charge in Cloud infrastructure development and performance, and it’s not just the big wigs in the fancy offices in the US who are moving us in the right direction.

       India’s IT marketing is growing at aphenomenal rate. No idea what Gartner and the lads are saying officially, but with the excitement in the country generated by the new Prime Minister (MrModi), the country is on a high and is booming in infrastructure, along with ITand software.

       Shame that they are struggling with the same major move to SSD like a lot of other regions are doing (due to price that is).

       Can’t wait to be back here in 3 months to see how much has changed again.

       Of course, we just flogged them at cricket so it’s always an easier trip when my side is winning.