EMC initiates Project Lightning, Thunder to follow

"It's for those high-end use cases. A good example might be a high-end trading application... it might not be for the mainstream."

The first Thunder devices will be trialled with early adopters in the second quarter. Wider adoption will be opened up later in the year

EMC in server space?

Ader would not be drawn into saying whether this foray into the server space would mark EMC's eventual move into actually manufacturing servers.

"As our customers are looking for different ways to manage their information, of course EMC is going to look at these different ways that we can leverage technology like flash disrupting types of enabling technology.

"There are ways for EMC to enhance value to customers by not just going into the server space. That's not the intention. The intention here is, there are different ways to create value. In some cases that might mean bringing storage to the server.

"If that means bringing storage to the compute makes sense, that's what we'll do. And that's kind of what we're doing with VFCache."

Companies such as Cisco and HP are trying to pack more into servers, whether with networking or storage capabilities.

Dell, meanwhile, recently broke off its storage relationship with EMC, hinting it would be dallying in smarter servers with potentially greater storage integration.