CoM

Apple buys a hardware company… the first since NeXT.

This is a few days after the fact but Apple has reportedly bought it’s first hardware company, since NeXT.

This is is significant in many ways and should cause the industries of technology and media to sit up and take notice.

Apple has always been know as a hardware company that sells it’s own proprietary software. They control the box… and what goes in it. All of the acquisitions since NeXT or aka Steve Job’s return to Apple were software companies. Of note, Keygrip which became Final Cut Pro, EMagic which was acquired and Logic Pro was born, and Silicon Color’s Final touch became Color.

But this is hardware… specifically NAND Flash or what is commonly know as Solid State Drives. Anobit, based in Israel, has supplied the enterprise and mobile markets with it’s SSD hardware, developing incredibly sophisticated algorithms that yield a more reliable/longer lasting form of solid state memory - while still be affordable.

To see Apple purchase a hardware company such as this supports the idea that as they continue to build SSDs into every product, flash storage will become the normal method of storage for all devices. Apple will drive the cost of SSD’s down because they will control the supply, quality, and innovation of the hardware.

As consumers buy more SSD based hardware, the cost for the enterprise will be driven down because of the volume that the consumer industry will demand. 

As SSD hardware becomes affordable in the enterprise… a quantum leap in speed should occur as the hardware continues to grow faster and more reliable.

To me, the sign of this purchase is very significant and in many ways supports the logic of Apple exiting the traditional server/RAID storage market.

A rumor… but interesting nonetheless

Apple is rumored to be purchasing NAND flash company, Anobit.

Apple and the Enterprise… beam me up!

It seem’s very likely that Apple will phase out the Mac Pro… but something tell’s me that ending production on Apple’s pinnacle work station won’t end the fully re-born tech giant’s role within enterprise. And this after the sudden excommunication of the video editing world’s beloved X-RAID and XServe, and subsequent gutting of Final Cut… Pro?!?

Take off the rose colored glasses, you say?

Here is an interesting article, talking about the future of SSD’s. If you read through it and consider the author’s (Zsolt Kerekes/StorageSearch.com) ideas… his perspective is that SSD’s rise to power will be in the coming year of 2012; and that it’s primary adoption rate will begin within the Enterprise world. (This perspective comes from analyzing data over the 30 year history of SSDs and the 50+ year history of HDDs)

The implications are that the need for expensive fibre will gradually disappear (supported by David Floyer’s article); and that the rack mounts filled with expensive bulky equipment will continue to shrink in size due to devices that 1.) By design physically take up less space and 2.) Consume significantly lower energy thereby lowering the need for advanced cooling systems and significant power to drive them. Everything shrinks, while getting faster, more efficient, and continually more reliable at a price tag that potentially boutiques can actually afford.

Playing field leveled. Competition/innovation… start your engines.

As Moore’s Law continues to apply to processors, SSDs may advance at the same, or as Kerekes proposes, at an even more accelerated pace. Apple has been moving to smaller, faster and lighter (the iOS product line)… but always continuing to push the boundaries of power/speed/reliability. And many of those innovations have made their way back into their portable and desktop products (MacBook Air, Lion etc.)

This all seem’s fairly logical and reasonable but SSD has been around for awhile, you say. True. In fact, consumer’s have had access to SSD’s for a few years now at a fairly affordable and continually lowering price range. The consumer market driving the enterprise market? Inconceivable!!! Or maybe not. Check this out.

Not necessarily a bad plan when considering consumer’s are lower maintenance (lower risk), generally speaking, than enterprise customers. But beyond being guinea pigs, strategically entering the consumer market first has a financial implication as well that could greatly benefit the world of enterprise… a paradigm shift.

Many have argued that iPods/iPads/iPhones have become Apple’s main focus. I TOTALLY agree…. but I think it is for a purpose… besides just keeping them in the black.

How many Apple devices have SSD’s in them as their main storage device or as a hybrid option? iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad/iMac/Mac Mini/Mac Pro.

The answer is…. they ALL do. Which was among the last to get SSD as a configurable option to completely replace a 50 year old standard? The Mac Pro. SSD’s are driving the market of EFD’s (Enterprise Flash Drives).

This is significant because until Apple began placing SSD’s in their devices (which they have been doing for some time but in progressive steps) it was NOT a standard. This should sound familiar shouldn’t it - Apple adopting early and with a purpose and with the intent of creating a new and better standard (Firewire etc. etc. anyone?). And it wasn’t a standard because the barrier to entry for a customer (consumer and enterprise) was extremely expensive. It could be argued that the mobile market was responsible for stimulating/invigorating the SSD market and encouraged mass production and subsequently adoption. And when mass adoption of hardware occurs… the barrier to entry lowers. Everyone wins. Except, in this case it moves from the proverbial “bottom on up”.

It’s very reasonable to consider that Apple is re-tooling it’s enterprise market to be faster, lighter, and extremely energy efficient at a time when the Enterprise customer will be able to enter the market at a reasonable price.  Multicore processing, with ever growing advancements in hyper threading, 64bit OS in place, unlimited RAM harnessing potential, a new wave of GPU acceleration, SSD RAIDS, Thunderbolt (or LightPeak) with the potential for 100Gb/s bi-directional throughput…. not to mention concepts like Virtual File Systems from a leader like Quantel (something the esteemed Michael Cioni of Light Iron Digital introduced me to) as well as Apple’s fascination with the Cloud of late… It just seem’s like it’s all worth a closer look.

So with many of these advancements well underway or just over the horizon… I find myself asking… why do we need a Mac Pro?

Here is Apple’s Mac Pro page … note the promotion of SSD’s.