Solidfire-oriented full flash array for cloud services

It is reported that flash array start-up Solidfire launched a full flash array, with cross-references data deduplication, compression and automatic streamlining configuration, compared with traditional San arrays, effectively increased capacity, while reducing the cost per gigabyte.

Marketing Vice President Jay Prassl says that Solidfire provides cloud-scale San block access and guarantees storage IOPS performance at thousands of levels in one infrastructure, you can adjust performance and specify three IOPS for each application: minimum, maximum, and burst mode. The

Maximum IOPS is what the customer wants, assuming 500, which is also the level of IOPS any read-write array access needs to be, and the minimum IOPS represents the minimum IOPS level when the array is very busy, typically 100, which means the system is heavily overloaded, If the maximum iops is still not satisfied, customers are generally willing to spend a little more money to purchase the unexpected level ioPS.

These performance SLAs (Http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/14189.html > Service level Agreements) are based on Intel SSD, and the difference in performance at each level is obvious.

A solidfire node has 10 300GB SSD, references imply that Intel 320 is used, its write IOPS performance can reach 23000, and read ioPS can reach 39500, so 10 SSD can reach 230000 and 395000 ioPS, but a solidfire node has only 50000 IOPS, which is why? There are 190000 to 345000 ioPS lost, why is this so?

Solidfire CEO Dave Wright said: "We run the maximum read/write workload, our replication means that write ioPS is double, we set a IOPS limit for background reconstruction and other internal tasks, so the only 50000 IOPS available to our customers ”。 In other words, the Solidfire SSD runs faster than the 50000 ioPS, which is a conservative figure that means Solidfire still has the performance to play space. Solidfire provides a guaranteed level of IOPS, which is easily measured and billed by cloud service providers.

In our view, if Solidfire want to improve performance further, it can use the faster SLC flash, but with MLC NAND more cost advantage, it is more continuous writing, so reducing the write magnification can prolong the life of flash memory. Prassl confirmed that Solidfire engineer is studying 3-bit mLC Flash Memory, if the service life is satisfactory, it will be able to expand capacity and reduce costs.

He points out that Solidfire de-duplication is global, works across all volumes, and NetApp ASIS can only delete duplicate data on each volume of the array, and cannot delete all volumes across the entire column, and NetApp CTO Alex McDonald has confirmed this. , but he says NetApp has a lot of LUNs in one volume. The

Prassl did not disclose the cost per gigabyte Solidfire, but said the price was comparable and potentially lower compared to the mainstream San vendors, such as EMC's traditional San arrays.

He also said that the remote replication feature will be released in the three quarter of 2012, as planned in the two quarter will be fully listed, the product is currently undergoing early testing, according to the plan, the project estimated 500PB capacity. The key customer object of the

Solidfire is the cloud service provider, which has also designed specialized software for these customers. TMS, violin and other vendors may be comparable in terms of node performance, but they do not configure proprietary software for cloud service providers, Prassl that this is the main reason Solidfire customers choose them. The

Solidfire is likely to use disk storage (near-line) chunks of data and store it in a tiered memory. If write frequently, SSD is upgraded to Enterprise class MLC, can continue to enlarge capacity in the future.

We speculate that Solidfire and Arista will jointly launch a Arista low latency switch and solidfire array as bundled goods to the cloud service provider.

(editor: Heritage)