Storage Array Vendors vs. the Cloud

Storage array vendors have a problem with their customers storing data in the cloud. They already sell to these customers but cloud service providers are cannier buyers typically and may favour cheaper and cloud-specific kit from other suppliers. What should storage array vendors do?

Their value is not in the disk drive shelves but in the software in the storage controller. Cloud storage-using customers may not want storage arrays but they will probably want a cloud storage gateway. That box, or software running in a virtual machine, can look like a SAN array or NAS box to accessing applications in servers. In other words it contains a lot of the code stack from a storage array controller.