This piece will discuss Nimble Storage, Proximal Data, Fusion-io and IBM flash memory hardware and software enterprise offerings.

FORBES: A Cornucopia of Flash Memory Enterprise Options

As an additional example, Bradford describes a hiring experience he went through at Fusion-io, the data center flash memory producer where he used to be CEO.

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Pentland is also head of the MIT Media Lab Entrepreneurship program, and has co-founded or served in an advisory role to several big data analytics startups such as Ginger.io and Sense Networks.

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The deal puts the company in direct competition with Fusion-io and others that target Big Data customers like Google, Facebook, eBay and Amazon.

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Fusion-io announced another software product, its ION Data Accelerator software that it plans to release in October 2012.

FORBES: A Cornucopia of Flash Memory Enterprise Options

Fusion-io is known for its high performance PCIe storage products and IO Turbine is offering technology for using flash storage for caching data in a virtualized enterprise environment.

FORBES: The Enormous Flash: New Opportunities and Announcements for Solid State Storage

Fusion-io speaks to the new architecture powering cloud, mobile, big data, and social media.

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When the first flash storage products, from pioneers like Fusion-IO, appeared, they were focused on a very few use cases that demanded very fast data access, beyond what spinning disk could provide.

FORBES: Connect