Ever wonder about the technology behind your favorite storage tools like external hard drives and flash storage? Chances are, they’re backed by the best-in-class products of Phison Electronics. We had the opportunity to sit down with Phison and learn more about how widespread their presence is in the storage industry.
Addressing Problems of Scale in Storage
As the amount of data at play in the average enterprise continues to grow, storing it all effectively becomes the name of the game for many enterprise IT administrators. In response to this burgeoning data, and as Moore’s Law continues to decline, we’ve seen a number of novel approaches to storage on mass scales.
A side of storage potentially overlooked in this zettabyte age, however, is the smaller scale, Flash-driven side of storage. Especially following the shift to work from home models, having an adaptable option like an extended storage device proves incredibly useful for employees who relied on large in-office desktops and other storage options compared to the limits of their WFH laptops. Although much of the storage industry “hype” revolves around massive storage options, smaller-scale storage is on the cusp of its own sort of renaissance as traditional discrete drives switch to multi-node storage fabrics.
The Undersung Name in Storage: Phison Electronics
Phison Electronics is all too aware of the need for smaller-scale, adaptable storage devices, the current shifts in the market, and even more so of the possibilities they hold in the near future. The Taiwanese-based company originally made their name by making controllers for USB and SSD storage devices, carving out a defined spot in the space where they quickly became the go-to player for drive controllers.
Today, however, 70 to 80% of their business comes from private-label NAND flash products through partnerships with OEMs like Kingston or Toshiba, making Phison components a fixture of both consumer and enterprise-level storage options alike. As we dig deeper into that statement, we find that, despite once only being known for their controllers, Phison is soon becoming the underlying thread between nearly all of today’s best-in-class storage devices.
Is Phison Everywhere? Signs Point to Yes
Thanks to our friend, Judy Smith, we recently had the opportunity to sit down with Phison’s Director of Enterprise Marketing and Business Development, Andy Higginbotham, to discuss Phison’s current state of affairs and their view on the market moving forward. As the largest private-label manufacturer of NAND Flash devices, Phison componentry appears, well, just about everywhere.
During our conversation, Higginbotham was unable to share some more concrete specifics about which companies leverage Phison’s technology outside of the big two mentioned above (for obvious proprietary reasons), but as we continued talking, shared an interesting way to find out just how wide their reach actually is. He pointed us towards a number of independent reviews sourced from around the industry covering various storage devices made by some of today’s biggest names in storage.
In each of them, Phison products — both controllers and NAND Flash — were the underlying components responsible for making them work and at such a high caliber. In fact, amidst our conversation, Mr. Storage himself, Stephen Foskett, found out that some of his favorite external hard drives and disks were backed by Phison tech.
We were ultimately both blown away by how far the extent of Phison’s reach in the storage industry actually goes. At the end of the day, that reach can surely be attributed to their incredible technology and the capabilities it can provide. Although I don’t want to tell too many tales out of class, our conversation ended with an assurance that Phison is well aware of the many trends going on in the storage industry, and are continuing to adapt and evolve their product line to ensure their tech remains at the top of the dogpile — even if no one even knows they’re behind it all.
Zach’s Reaction
I challenge you, dear reader, to pull up the spec list on your nearby Flash device. Odds are, at least one facet of it is made by Phison. With a best-in-class product line, it’s no wonder Phison is trusted by so many of the big names in the storage industry to deliver high-quality componentry that meets the demands of modern IT operations.
I’d love to give a big thanks to Andy Higginbotham for taking the time to chat with us about Phison, and again to Judy Smith for facilitating it! You can learn more about what Phison does by checking out their website, and can learn more about the breadth of their presence in the storage industry by checking the specs on all of your favorite Flash devices.
