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From the Blogosphere The Evolution of Solid State Arrays
Solid state storage continues to evolve
By: Chris Evans
Nov. 14, 2012 08:30 AM
In the first wave of solid-state storage arrays, we saw commodity style SSDs (solid state drives) being added to traditional storage arrays. This solution provided an incremental benefit in performance over spinning hard drives, however the back-end technology in these arrays was developed up to 20 years ago and was purely focused around driving performance out of the slowest part of the infrastructure – the hard drive. Of course SSDs are an order of magnitude faster than HDDs so you can pretty much guarantee SSDs in traditional arrays results in underused resources, but is premium priced. Wave 2 of SSD arrays saw the development of custom hardware, mostly still continuing to use commodity SSDs. At this point we saw full exploitation of the solid state capabilities, with architecture designed to provide the full performance capabilities of solid state drives. These arrays removed unnecessary or bottlenecking features (like cache) and provided much more back-end scalability. Within the wave 2 group, Nimbus Data have chosen a hybrid approach and developed their own solid state drives. This gives them more control over the management functionality of the SSDs and subsequently more control over performance and availability.
Notably, some startup vendors have taken a slightly different approach. Violin Memory have chosen from day 1 to use custom NAND memory cards called VIMMs (Violin Intelligent Memory Module). This technology removes the need for NAND to emulate a hard drive and for the interface between the processor/memory & persistent memory (e.g. the NAND) to go across a hard drive interface like SAS using the SCSI protocol. Whilst it could be debated that the savings from removing the disk drive protocol could be marginal, the use of NAND that doesn’t emulate hard drives is about much more than that. SSD controllers have many features to extend the life of the drive itself. This includes wear levelling and garbage collection, features that could have a direct impact on device performance. Custom NAND components can, for instance allow wear levelling to be achieved across the entire array or for individual cell failures to be managed more efficiently. Building bespoke NAND components isn’t cheap. Violin have chosen to invest in technology that they believe gives them an advantage in their hardware – no dependency on SSD manufacturers. The ability to build advanced functionality into their persistent memory means availability can be increased (components don’t need to be swapped out as frequently – failing components can be partially used). At this point we should do a call out to Texas Memory Systems, recently acquired by IBM. They have also used custom NAND components; their RamSan-820 uses 500GB flash modules using eMLC memory. I believe that the third wave will see many more vendors looking to move away from the SSD form factor and building bespoke NAND components as Violin have done. Currently Violin and TMS have the headstart. They’ve done the hard work and built the foundation of their platform. Their future innovations will probably revolve around bigger and faster devices and replacing NAND with whatever is the next generation of persistent memory. Last week, HDS announced their approach to full flash devices; a new custom-build Flash Module Drive (FMD) that can be added to the VSP platform. This provides 1.6TB or 3.2TB (higher capacity due March 2013) of storage per module, which can then be stacked into an 8U shelf of 48 FMDs in total – a total of 600TB of flash in a single VSP. Each FMD is like a traditional SSD drive in terms of height and width, but is much deeper in size. It appears to the VSP as a traditional SSD. The FMD chassis is separate to the existing disk chassis that are deployed in the VSP and so FMDs can’t be deployed in conjunction with hard drives. Although this seems like a negative, the flash modules have higher specification back-end directors (to fully utilise the flash performance), which, in addition to their size, explains why they wouldn’t be mixed together. Creating a discrete flash module provides Hitachi with a number of benefits compared to individual MLC SSDs including:
The new FMDs can also be used with HDT (dynamic tiering) to cater for mixed sub-LUN workloads and of course Hitachi’s upgraded microcode is already optimised to work with flash devices. The Architect’s View Disclaimer: I recently attended the Hitachi Bloggers’ and Influencers’ Days 2012. My flights and accommodation were covered by Hitachi during the trip, however there is no requirement for me to blog about any of the content presented and I am not compensated in any way for my time when attending the event. Some materials presented were discussed under NDA and don’t form part of my blog posts, but could influence future discussions. Related Links
Comments are always welcome; please indicate if you work for a vendor as it’s only fair. If you have any related links of interest, please feel free to add them as a comment for consideration. Read the original blog entry...
Cloud Expo Breaking News
Top Stories for Cloud Expo 2012 East
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It is an absolute must-read for all concerned with current and future research projects in Cloud Computing. Reads: 8,363  "The volume of data we're generating now from machines pales in comparison to the volume of data we'll soon generate from our own bodies," says data security expert Dave Asprey. Writing in a Trend Micro blog, Asprey - who is one of the leaders in the emerging Quantified Self movement - explains his vision of a world in which personal biometrical data is shared via the cloud. Reads: 14,420  Cloud computing has caught the attention of business leaders around the world in every
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Cloud computing is a technology that has rapidly evolving peppered with a lot of hype along the way. Customers find it hard to navigate through this and make sense of what aspects of this technology will give them real business benefit.
Cloud Computing Bootcamp, led by our 2013 Bootcamp Instructor Larry Carvalho, is a great way to get a practical understanding of this technology. We offer multiple days of actionable insight into what vendor offerings are currently available and help you comprehend their strategy.
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As corporations across all industries globally are struggling with how to retain, aggregate and analyze this mounting volume of what the industry refers to as Big Data, it also provides a unique opportunity for innovative startups that recognize the business prospects Big Data presents. Big Data is not just unlocking new information but new sources of economic and business value.
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Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX) is the open cloud company, delivering open technologies and powering more than 205,000 customers worldwide. Rackspace provides its renowned Fanatical Support® across a broad portfolio of IT products, including Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Hosting and Dedicated Hosting. Rackspace has been recognized by Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company, is featured on Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For and is included on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Rackspace was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in the "2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting." Rackspace is headquartered in San Antonio with offices and data centers around the world.  10th International Cloud Expo, held on June 11-14, 2012 at the Javits Center in New York City, featured four content-packed days with a rich array of sessions about the business and technical value of cloud computing led by exceptional speakers from every sector of the cloud computing ecosystem.
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For more than 28 years, Dell has empowered countries, communities, customers and people everywhere to use technology to realize their dreams. Customers trust Dell to deliver technology solutions that help them do and achieve more, whether they're at home, work, school or anywhere in their world. Learn more about Dell's story, purpose and people behind its customer-centric approach. Reads: 2,688  One of the most compelling promises of the cloud is that you can pull out a credit card and be working in minutes. No purchase orders to fill out, no equipment to wait for on the loading dock. Just instant access to the resources you need, when you need them. But accessibility comes at a price, and an unintentional consequence may be that you create yet another orphaned identity silo. Enterprise IT has spent years consolidating its mishmash of directories, only to discover that cloud now threatens to turn back their hard-won victories.
In his session at the 12th International Cloud Expo, Scott Morrison, CTO and Chief Architect at Layer 7 Technologies, will look at strategies to incorporate identity into cloud applications. Enterprise identity or social login can both be a part of your go-to-cloud strategy, but you must plan for this upfront, rather than try to retrofit identity and access control at a later date. Reads: 3,042 Cloud Expo, Cloud Expo East, Cloud Expo West, Cloud Expo Silicon Valley, Cloud Expo Europe, Cloud Expo Tokyo, Cloud Expo Prague, Cloud Expo Hong Kong, Cloud Expo Sao Paolo are trademarks and /or registered trademarks (USPTO serial number 85009040) of Cloud Expo, Inc. Reads: 16,967 |
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