Solid-state storage

The state of flash storage systems

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Pure Storage revenue results rosy, guidance thorny

Pure Storage revealed two surprises during its fourth quarter earnings call. One the plus side, the all-flash vendor exceeded its forecast and expectations for revenue during the quarter and all of ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

IBM flash storage key to turnaround, says GM Walsh

Ed Walsh takes over as general manager of IBM storage to reignite sales. He says customers 'challenged by disruption' turn to flash storage to modernize IT. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

HPE storage sales slipped sharply in late 2016

Storage is among the casualties of Hewlett Packard Enterprise's struggles following the break-up of Hewlett-Packard. The vendor reported HPE storage revenue declined 12% year-over-year to $730 ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

NAND flash shortage has SSD supply, pricing impact

Flash shortage could slow price declines and constrain SSD supplies through the end of 2017 as manufacturers make difficult transition from 2D/Planar to 3D NAND technology. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

AFA storage has total cost of ownership advantages over HDDs

All-flash array storage TCO advantages, including reduced power and cooling and increased performance, can help an organization justify its use to store their active workloads. Continue Reading

By

• Logan G. Harbaugh, Independent consultant

AFA storage advances may mean the end of the hybrid market

Flash price drops and speed boosts make the all-flash array the smart choice over hybrid storage arrays for most enterprise users, not just those with high-performance computing needs. Continue Reading

By

• Jim O'Reilly

Tegile Systems IntelliFlash HD

Tegile Systems IntelliFlash HD intended to appeal to medium and large enterprises looking to consolidate multiple workloads on a single all-flash array. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Nimble Storage All Flash Arrays (AF-Series)

Nimble's first all-flash array family scales from 20 TB to petabyte and 8.2 PB of usable storage and 1.2 million IOPS per four-node cluster. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Hitachi Data Systems Virtual Storage Platform VSP F800

Modular rack-mounted Hitachi Data Systems VSP F800 runs the vendor's SVOS operating system software and is equipped with custom-designed flash storage modules. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Nimble Storage Adaptive Flash Arrays (CS-Series)

Nimble Storage jumped on the all-flash bandwagon in 2016, but didn't forget its disk fans by upgrading its CS-Series mixing flash and hard disk drives. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Dense Pure Storage FlashBlade storage zeroes in on web-scale analytics

FlashBlade system-on-a-chip from Pure Storage converges compute, flash storage and software-defined networking. The arrays use custom flash modules instead of solid-state drives. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Enterprise flash storage to speed up in 2017

CTOs at leading storage vendors predict speed and latency breakthroughs with new NVMe-based enterprise flash and upcoming memory technologies in 2017 and beyond. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

IBM DS8880 arrays adopt PCIe 3 in all-flash versions

The expansion of the IBM DS8880 hardware line introduces all-flash models designed around the vendor's High-Performance Flash Enclosure Gen2 to support PCIe 3.0, but not yet NVMe. Continue Reading

By

• Garry Kranz

Kaminario secures $75 million funding round

All-flash array pioneer Kaminario kicked off 2017 with a cash infusion of $75 million to accelerate global expansion and fuel product support for non-volatile memory express (NVMe) technologies. ... Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

All-flash array market advances outpace demand, create opportunities

Scott Sinclair says high-density, high-capacity all-flash storage arrays are a disruptive technology ahead of customer demand for now, but businesses will realize they need it. Continue Reading

By

• Scott Sinclair, Practice Director

All-flash array market advances outpace demand, create opportunities

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Differences between SSD caching and tiering technologies

Brien Posey looks at popular ways of using SSD as cache, including write-around, write-through and write-back, as well as how the technology compares with SSD tiering. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

HPE launches new XP7 based on Hitachi technology

Hewlett Packard Enterprise launched its high-end enterprise storage array upgade today at the same time as Hitachi Data Systems. The HPE XP7 and HDS Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) use the same ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Making a storage capacity plan that doesn't bust your budget

Storage capacity is growing at a rapid rate and by using the latest innovations in storage technologies it is possible to meet demands without growing your storage budget apace. Continue Reading

By

• Jim O'Reilly

Dell EMC to 'stay the course' with flash storage portfolio

Dell EMC plans to “stay the course” with its flash storage portfolio despite overlapping products at the midrange and low end, an executive at the newly combined company confirmed. Daniel Cobb, a ... Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Nimble says customers quick to embrace all-flash

Nimble Storage, which was relatively late selling all-flash arrays, is trying to make up for lost time since launching its Predictive Flash platform in February. The vendor received a jolt from ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Seven tips to improve data storage efficiency

Storage networks, server-side flash, network cache, software-defined storage and all-flash or hybrid arrays help storage performance and efficiency. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

Simplifying data storage technologies is hard

All-flash arrays and hyper-converged storage are two technologies that make it tough to simplify data storage technology. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Almost time for SSD flash storage to be used with object storage

As the price of flash SSD storage continues to fall, it becomes more attractive for object storage, which otherwise counts on big, slow and cheap HDDs. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

RDMA over Fabrics: a big step for SSD access

Shared storage access for servers has been the most basic requirement for storage networks. Performance demands for multiple systems accessing data continually increase due to improvements in ... Continue Reading

By

• Randy Kerns, Evaluator Group

NAND flash technology is just the beginning

NAND flash adoption has been as fast as the speed it offers, but faster storage techs such as 3D XPoint and phase-change memory are on their way. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

How to measure flash storage's true value

Flash storage, or using the broader term, solid-state storage, suffers from an inadequate measure of value. Flash storage provides a step-function improvement in the ability to store and retrieve ... Continue Reading

By

• Randy Kerns, Evaluator Group

How can you increase SSD lifespan and keep performance?

Solid-state drives offer high performance, but their cost remains prohibitive. Here are some ways to prolong your SSD lifecycle while maintaining performance. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

Propane provider gives SAN the gas with Violin flash array

Ferrellgas' switch from a hybrid array to a Violin flash storage array brought a boost in performance as well as surprising reductions in cost and management. Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

HPE turns 3PAR array from all-flash to hybrid

For years we’ve seen storage vendors take systems designed for hard disk drives (HDDs) and add solid-state drives (SSDs) to them. Now Hewlett Packard Enterprise is taking hardware that ran all SSDs ... Continue Reading

By

• Sonia Lelii, TechTarget

Violin Memory receives no offers, makes few sales in Q4

Violin Memory finished its hunt for a buyer without a deal. It did land a few partnerships, while shedding a quarter of its workforce and closing few sales of its all-flash storage arrays. Violin ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Pure Storage accelerates flash revenue

Pure Storage is looking at more competition and more opportunity than ever, and handling both well. The all-flash vendor bucked industry trends by growing revenue significantly last quarter despite ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

Will most 3D NAND flash products continue to feature TLC?

Vendors are using TLC flash in their 3D NAND flash products, which allows for greater capacity at a lower cost, according to Brien Posey. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

EMC XtremIO storage array

The XtremIO storage array from EMC is an all-flash system that offers scalability and high performance. Continue Reading

By

• Valerie Silverthorne

Performance counts when buying a solid-state storage device

More than half of our surveyed companies are using flash now, with plans to use it for more than just mission-critical apps. Continue Reading

By

• Rich Castagna

Will memristor technology replace NAND flash?

Brien Posey says that with HP working on a memristor-based computer it plans to launch by 2020, the technology could eventually succeed NAND flash. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

New Dell storage array, software-defined options added

Dell Storage ships new entry-level SCv2000 arrays, ups performance and density in PS6610 and adds a new Microsoft-based software-defined storage option. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Four tips to maximize the lifespan of your flash memory storage

The lifespan of flash memory storage is not the hot-button issue it once was, but you should perform these tasks to prolong the life of your drives. Continue Reading

By

• Brien Posey

How does RDMA work and why is it advantageous with flash?

Remote Direct Memory Access is a good way to reduce latency in flash environments and works with InfiniBand and some Ethernet connections. Continue Reading

By

• Dennis Martin, Demartek

EMC gives ViPR flash-related upgrade

EMC last week quietly upgraded its ViPR software-defined storage and ScaleIO hyper-convergence software, broadening support for platforms and emerging technologies. One of the selling points of ... Continue Reading

By

• Dave Raffo

What should I consider when using SSD cloud?

Using solid-state in the cloud can boost performance, but first be sure you look past cost per gigabyte and are aware of any constraints from providers. Continue Reading

By

• Greg Schulz, The Server and StorageIO Group

NVDIMM vs. memory channel flash storage

Marc Staimer of Dragon Slayer Consulting compares NVDIMM and memory channel flash, explaining the advantages and disadvantages of each. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Memory channel flash storage vs. PCIe flash storage

Marc Staimer compares memory channel flash storage with PCIe connected flash and offers insight on the advantages and disadvantages of each. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Flash storage: Guide to all-flash storage arrays

TechTarget's all-flash storage array guide navigates the hotly contested market with a comparison chart and snapshot profiles of 15 products. Continue Reading

Violin 6000 arrays feature proprietary flash modules, memory fabric

Violin 6000 Series all-flash storage arrays use proprietary flash modules, memory fabric architecture and RAID to improve performance and latency. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

A tiered storage model is different from caching

In this podcast, Evaluator Group strategist Randy Kerns looks in-depth at today's tiered storage model, including how it differs from flash caching. Continue Reading

By

• Todd Erickson

What is the top storage challenge with in-memory databases?

Wikibon CTO David Floyer said the greatest challenge with an in-memory database from a storage perspective is recovery in the event of a problem. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Comparing performance and cost of DRAM vs. NAND

George Crump of Storage Switzerland compares the performance and cost of DRAM to NAND flash in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading

By

• George Crump

How NAND flash degrades and what vendors do to increase SSD endurance

Storage Switzerland senior analyst Eric Slack digs into the technical aspects of SSD cell degradation and how vendors are increasing SSD endurance. Continue Reading

By

• Todd Erickson

Comparing DIMM-connected flash vs. PCIe flash benefits

Leah Schoeb of Evaluator Group discusses DIMM-connected flash as compared with PCIe flash benefits in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading

By

• Leah Schoeb, Evaluator Group

Problems with using SSDs for write caching and how to avoid them

Marc Staimer looks at using SSDs for write caching and explains why most storage SSD caching is write-through and not write-back. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Why is persistent cache important?

Leah Schoeb, partner with Evaluator Group, discusses the importance of persistent cache in this Expert Answer. Continue Reading

By

• Leah Schoeb, Evaluator Group

Best practices for SSD technologies

No longer a luxury item for well-heeled data centers, SSD technologies are more affordable than ever and come in a variety of form factors with a choice of deployment options. Continue Reading

By

• Dennis Martin, Demartek

MRAM technology likely choice as post-flash solid-state storage

NAND flash-based storage is becoming a common alternative, but NAND flash could soon be replaced by newer forms of non-volatile memory like MRAM technology. Continue Reading

By

• Mike Matchett, Small World Big Data

Should you believe vendors’ jaw-dropping solid-state performance specs?

The benefits of solid-state storage are clear -- cool running, space-saving and blistering performance. But just how “blistering” is that performance? Data storage vendors toss previously unheard of numbers around, like millions of IOPS, to show the speed of their hybrid and all-solid-state drive arrays … but are they really that fast? We take a look at how the vendors get their numbers, and what numbers are meaningful for your environment.
Storage tiering’s been around for a while, but has recently received a boost from solid-state. We look at who’s doing what with automated tiering and describe some of the tiering specs that will be most important to you.

And for the seventh year, users register their satisfaction (or disappointments) with midrange and enterprise-class network-attached storage (NAS) systems in the latest installment of our Quality Awards for NAS. Continue Reading

Comparing SLC SSD with DRAM SSD when it comes to IOPS

Find out how DRAM SSD and SLC SSD compare when it comes to IOPS and if you need a DRAM solution in this Expert Response from Marc Staimer. Continue Reading

By

• Marc Staimer, Dragon Slayer Consulting

Define SSD: Top terms you need to know

How do you define SSD? Check out this list of important SSD terms. The list includes terms you should know and some that may seem obscure. Continue Reading

By

• Ed Hannan

RAID with SSD: A primer

While RAID is still a storage standard, questions remain about RAID’s relevance with SSDs. This tip will explore the basics of using RAID with SSD. Continue Reading

By

• Mark Peters

Enterprise storage trends: SSDs, capacity optimization, auto tiering

Several enterprise storage trends are emerging at big and small storage vendors. Find out why certain technologies are trending and what they can do for your storage environment. Continue Reading

Using SSD technology to support memory overcommitment in vSphere

Using SSD in a vSphere environment helps with memory overcommitment. Find out how memory overcommitment works and why SSD is better at supporting it than mechanical disk. Continue Reading

By

• Eric Siebert

The impact of SSD technology on the network and CPU

SSD technology can have a noticeable effect on the network and CPU utilization. Learn how increased traffic loads can change the bottlenecks in your environment. Continue Reading

By

• Dennis Martin, Demartek

Auto-tiering software set to boost adoption of SSDs

Discover why auto tiering could make expensive SSDs a more viable option, and about improvements to sub-LUN auto tiering and available auto-tiering options. Continue Reading

By

• Carol Sliwa

Is PCIe SSD right for you? Deploying PCI Express SSD devices

Learn about the PCI Express (PCIe) solid-state drive (SSD) market, how and where to deploy PCIe SSD in your environment, and challenges with the technology. Continue Reading

By

• Stephen Foskett, Gestalt IT