EMC XtremeIO is giving Pure a strong run for its money.

EMC's biggest problem in storage isn't on the All-Flash side (XTremeIO is working as intended), it's that there's fewer reasons to buy the high end, high margin (VMAX) storage these days, and EMC needs to come up with a big margin patch... which it thinks it might have with DSSD [1] [2].

[1] https://storagemojo.com/2014/11/11/pure-vs-emc-whos-winning/ [2] https://storagemojo.com/2015/02/18/dssd-hiring-is-exploding/

Companies follow a predictable lifecycle. E.g. several decades ago Netapp killed Auspex (and then acquired the IP!).[1] It's quite possible that one of these new companies will kill Netapp.

Edit: BTW Auspex had very nice hardware. But it was over-engineered and more expensive than Netapp. And snapshots on Netapp were better than anything Auspex had. So, more expensive hardware, inferior software. Not a good combination.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auspex_Systems

Then you need a new sales rep. Nimble markets themselves as being a cheaper alternative but they absolutely are not. I've priced both and the 2500 is consistently cheaper per TB. Pure isn't even close and doesn't claim to be unless you're comparing $/IOP instead of $/GB, and even then if you find the right NetApp rep they'll at least make you decide on product features instead of price.

What about Simplivity? Do you have any experience/opinion on them?

I do not! Would love to hear more info, I am really only commenting on the hardware I know/own. But I have heard pretty good things about their replication and how they are neck and neck with Nutanix. I have UCS for my main sites, and Nutanix for my Remote offices and its working great!

If you have any UCS C240 M3's then you may have SimpliVity options to explore. https://www.simplivity.com/products/omnistack-cisco-ucs/

I'll bet many of those nimble customers go back to netapp.