Samsung Electronics partners with VMWare for optimal storage virtualization

Samsung Electronics Co.’ PCIe 5.0-based server SSD PM1743. [Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

Samsung Electronics Co. has gained a competitive advantage in the memory solution business through its collaboration with VMWare, a global leader in cloud software. The partnership was announced at VMware Explore 2023 held in Las Vegas, USA, starting from August 21, Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday.

Under the partnership, both companies will engage in a collaboration aimed at achieving optimal storage virtualization and high-performance implementation of big data platforms.

Samsung Electronics said it has obtained the industry’s first VMware All Flash Certification for its PCIe Gen5 SSD, PM1743, with a goal of providing users with more optimal solutions.

Obtaining the All Flash Certification means that when VMWare’s software vSAN is combined with Samsung Electronics’ PCIe 5.0-based server SSD PM1743 in a storage system, one can expect optimal performance and efficiency, according to Samsung Electronics.

Samsung Electronics has optimized its server SSD PM1743 to meet the requirements of the latest vSAN solution design standards, enabling simultaneous enhancement of system performance and capacity, and maximizing the advantages of vSAN.

Given VMWare’s collaboration with AI companies including NVIDIA, this certification also opens up possibilities for companies using AI platforms created by NVIDIA and others to use Samsung SSDs.

“The PM1743 receiving the industry’s first All Flash Certification is a remarkable achievement, and we look forward to working even more closely with VMware in the future,” said Bae Yong-cheol, Vice President of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. “We are firmly committed to our goal of creating new customer value and diverse technological solutions through enhanced collaboration with VMware.”

“Together, VMware and Samsung are driving storage innovations that help process vast amounts of data more quickly, with better scale and higher performance. Combining Samsung’s latest Gen5 SSD and VMware vSAN 8 with the vSAN Express Storage Architecture (vSAN ESA) will deliver systems that help our customers unlock the full potential of AI in the enterprise,” said John Gilmartin, senior vice president, cloud infrastructure business group product management and marketing, VMware.