Posts Tagged ‘data protection’
Posted March 25th, 2013
|
Good Riddance Indeed to the Spinning Disk Era
INFOWORLD AUTHOR LAMENTS USE OF ANCIENT STORAGE TECH
By Kaminario
|
Earlier this year, InfoWorld’s Paul Venezia penned Good-bye – and good riddance – to spinning disk. In it, he laments the continued use of “ancient storage technology” and foresees “a post-storage world” where the industry is “devoid of the painfully outdated yet ubiquitous spinning disk.”
His take fits our view that hard disks are headed the way of the floppy though he says that in some scenarios, HDDs will be used like the way tape is used today. I suppose the alternative is simply recycling.
Venezia says “rethinking centralized storage is a necessary part of this transition [to all SSD].” He is right, but you also have to rethink how you evaluate SSD storage solutions too. Innovation is making hardware dumb and software smart. SSD hardware in the enterprise is fast becoming a commodity and prices are falling in line with that movement. More important than the media itself when comparing your SSD options, software capabilities should trump hardware. Focusing too much on hardware and not enough on the software platform wrapped around it introduces greater risk of quick obsolescence and the inability to adapt to changing requirements.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:application performance, data protection, Database Performance, Flash, Flash SSD, I/O bottlenecks, I/O wait, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, Kaminario K2, latency, MLC, Storage Performance
Posted in SSD TCO | No Comments »
Posted January 23rd, 2013
|
Shared SSD Arrays for Big Data Performance and Reliability
Speed isn’t everything
By Kaminario
|
A November 30 Fusion-io blog entry, Cisco and Fusion-io Tackle Big Data with Oracle NoSQL, highlights blazing NoSQL big data performance achieved by a Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS) configured with server-based Fusion ioDrive2 SSD. The blog and linked Cisco Solution Brief discuss the importance of near-real-time performance when running operations on user profile data in an e-commerce transaction scenario. Fast performance is key to e-commerce customer satisfaction and can be difficult to achieve with the widely fluctuating workloads typical of a busy e-commerce site.
Fusion-io and Cisco make a compelling argument for SSD in near-real-time big data scenarios and for server-based SSD in particular. However, it’s important to remember that for business critical big data applications, you need scalability and bulletproof reliability as well. There’s another solution that is both more reliable and more efficient than server-based SSD: SSD arrays such as the Kaminario K2. Here are some reasons why you should consider an SSD array, and, specifically, a Kaminario K2 with its Scale-out Performance Storage Architecture (SPEAR), for your near-real-time big data needs. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:availability, big data, Cisco, data protection, DataProtect, Fusion-io, I/O operations, K2, Kaminario, NoSQL, real-time performance, replication, Scalability, scale-out architecture, server-based SSD, shared storage, snapshots, SPEAR, SSD, storage array
Posted in SSD Architectures | No Comments »
Posted December 19th, 2012
 |
2012 Year in Review: SSD Grows Up
By Dani Golan
|
2012 was the year SSD started moving from niche status into the enterprise mainstream, building up the seasoning and enterprise-class features it needs to take off in the years ahead. It’s obvious that enterprise IT is taking notice, feeling more comfortable with the technology, and becoming more aware of its benefits and best uses.
Here are some of the trend highlights we noticed over the past year.
Sales continued to grow – SSD sales continue their upward trajectory. According to IDC, the market for enterprise SSDs will continue to grow to $5.5 billion in 2015. SSD shipments in general reached 12.9 million units in the first half of 2012 and are expected to reach 28 million in the second half, according to HIS iSuppli Memory and Storage Service.
SSD continues to close the price gap with HDD – Flash pricing continues to become more competitive with hard disk storage, and the gap is narrowing. SSD prices continued to fall this year, with the bare media cost falling well below $3 per gigabyte in 2012, compared with almost $9 per gigabyte in 2010. Adding to the lower cost are the cooling and real estate advantages of an SSD array compared with hard disk storage.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:Anobit, data protection, EMC, Flash SSD, flash storage, FlashSoft, high availability, hybrid storage, IBM, IDC, Kaminario, NetApp, SanDisk, solid state devices, Solid State Storage, SSD architectures, SSD Solutions, Storage Performance, Texas Memory Systems, XtremIO Apple
Posted in SSD Solutions | No Comments »
Posted August 20th, 2012
 |
Welcome to the Data Protection Party
SSD SPOTLIGHT NOT JUST FOR SPEED
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
|
Aside from enabling SPC-1 benchmark record-breaking speed, Kaminario’s big product focus has been on developing data protection features on its K2 solid-state SAN solutions. Last February, we announced DataProtect that provides users with advanced functionality including high-volume snapshots and non-disruptive operations.
News hit last week that Violin Memory is integrating Symantec’s data management tools with Violin’s memory operating system (vMOS). It is good news for data protection to be in the SSD spotlight. Speed may be sexy but confidence that you won’t lose your data is equally if not more important. SSDs have to be at least as reliable as HDDs for many data center managers to even consider adopting them for their most critical business applications. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:data protection, Flash SSD, HDD, HDD data protection, high availability, K2, Kaminario, Scale-out performance Storage Architecture, solid-state SAN storage, SPC-1 benchmark, SPEAR, SSD, Symantec, Violin Memory
Posted in Data Protection | No Comments »
Posted April 30th, 2012
|
Welcome to the Party, EMC
EMC’S LIKELY ACQUISITION OF XTREMEIO VALIDATES SSD AS A TIER 1 STORAGE SOLUTION
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
|
The press has picked up on indications that EMC is about to acquire future SSD array vendor XtremeIO. This is an interesting development coming on the heels of EMC’s Project Lightning and Thunder announcements. As everyone knows, EMC is the mother of all disk storage vendors and has, until now, touted SSD primarily as a cache solution fronting and accelerating scores of legacy EMC disk storage arrays. Project Lightning and Thunder reflect this strategy, with Lightning providing a server based PCI SSD read cache solution and Project Thunder looking to do the same thing with a storage array.
XtremeIO is in prerelease semi-secretive mode right now, but has said clearly that it aims to produce pure SSD arrays to compete with the likes of Kaminario, Violin Memory, and all the other usual SSD array suspects. An EMC acquisition of such a vendor indicates that holes have developed in EMC’s SSD cache armor and the disk storage giant feels forced to validate SSD arrays as a large, viable, growing market competing with disk. It will be interesting to see how EMC integrates XtremeIO’s technology into its strategy without eating into its bread and butter disk array product line.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:cache, data protection, DataProtect, DRAM, EMC, enterprise storage, Flash, high availability, K2, Kaminario, mainstream storage, PCI, performance, Project Lightning, Project Thunder, Pure Storage, RAID 10HD, read cache, Scalability, SSD, SSD array, storage arrays, tier 0, Tier 1, Violin Memory, XtremiIO
Posted in Hybrid Storage | No Comments »
Posted April 16th, 2012
|
Does Your SSD Array Protect Your Data?
ASK YOUR STORAGE VENDOR THESE QUESTIONS
By Kaminario
|
Does your array have a single point of failure?
Single points of failure are a liability for your HA solution. Some storage arrays still have them especially if they have only one controller. If that is the case, you might need two systems mirrored to prevent complete outages. Depending on the implementation, there could also be single points of failure in servers or Flash cards.
Kaminario K2 is fully N+1 redundant. There is NO single point of failure allowing the K2 to withstand any single failure.
Are your hardware components including Flash hot-swappable?
Can you swap a FRU (Field Replaceable Unit) while the system is operational? Many vendors claim their arrays are hot-swappable but they are not usable during the swap unless it is fully mirrored. Those products require downtime to allow opening a server so Flash cards can be exchanged. This process increases the time needed to return to full speed.
All hardware FRUs in the Kaminario K2 are hot swappable. Kaminario demonstrated this capability in a video.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:data protection, Disk latency, Flash, Flash SSD, high availability, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, OLTP, Storage Performance
Posted in Data Protection | No Comments »
Posted April 2nd, 2012
|
Reflections on a Launch
A MONTH HAS PASSED SINCE KAMINARIO INTRODUCED DATAPROTECT
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
|
Analyst and Media Reaction to the DataProtect Launch
It has been just over a month since Kaminario launched the DataProtect™ high availability and data protection capabilities for the Kaminario K2 product line. Analyst and media reaction has been very positive — highlighting the advantages and challenges that we have ahead.
After reviewing the DataProtect coverage, three messages stood out:
- High availability and data protection features such as DataProtect are needed for SSDs to be accepted as a HDD replacement in the data center;
- Kaminario is moving beyond the high-performance storage niche segment and aiming squarely at primary storage;
- DataProtect gives Kaminario some advantages but market competition is very aggressive.
Just to recap the coverage highlights, I’d like to share a selection of comments that capture much of the feedback we have observed.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:application performance, data protection, DataProtect, Disk latency, DRAM Storage, DRAM-based SSD Appliances, Flash, Flash SSD, High Availablity, IOPS, K2, Kaminario
Posted in Data Protection | No Comments »
Posted March 28th, 2012
|
Which Data Protection Features Would You Like to See in SSD SAN Storage Arrays?
CALL FOR YOUR OPINION
By Kaminario
|
Kaminario is embarking on a research project to learn more about what data protection features customers want in their SSD SAN storage arrays. We will be sharing the results with you to continue conversations about SSD adoption in the enterprise data center.
We want your opinion too! Tell us in the blog comments. Also, feel free to publish your thoughts on your blog. Send us the link.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Please identify the data protection features you would most like to see in SSD SAN storage arrays.
If more data protection features become available in SSD SAN storage arrays, how will it impact your interest in acquiring one?
LET US KNOW.
Tags:application performance, data protection, Database Performance, Disk latency, High Availablity, IOPS, K2, Kaminario
Posted in Data Protection | No Comments »
Posted March 12th, 2012
|
HA and Data Protection Have Different Flavors
RESPONSE TO AN ARTICLE IN THE REGISTER
By Kaminario
|
Chris Mellor’s article about the TMS RamSan-820 made some comparisons between the Texas Memory Systems product and the Kaminario K2.
I just wanted to take it a step further by emphasizing two differences between Kaminario and TMS that enterprise customers should consider: non-disruptive operations and linear scalability.
Though the TMS RamSan-820 appliance as a unit has fully redundant hardware components, it lacks one important feature – hot replacements. When a failure happens (as it always does), the entire system becomes a single point of failure, exposing operations to data unavailability or worse data loss. Failed components have to be replaced ASAP.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:application performance, data protection, Database Performance, DRAM Storage, Flash, I/O bottlenecks, IOPS, Kaminario, TMS
Posted in Data Protection | No Comments »
Posted March 8th, 2012
|
Array Vendors: Get out of SSD’s Way
ARRAY VENDORS THAT USE DISK-FORM-FACTOR SSD’S JUST DON’T GET IT
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
|
In his blog entry entitled Are SSD-based arrays a bad idea? Robin Harris argues that packing arrays full of disk-form-factor SSD’s is counterproductive. Why? He cites several reasons, including latency, bandwidth, reliability, and cost, but mostly it boils down to squeezing a fast storage media into a slow architecture—much like driving a race car through rush hour traffic or putting wings on a bicycle. Cost and reliability come into play as well, because shoving flash into a disk form factor is less space efficient, less reliable, and more expensive than mounting it on a board.
Enterprise SSD is a young, rapidly evolving market and will continue to evolve until the industry agrees on the perfect SSD architecture and creates standards around it. Expect that to take several years. In the meantime we at Kaminario believe we have come pretty close. We agree with Harris that board-mounted flash makes a lot of sense for reasons of cost, performance, and reliability. That’s why we pack the K2 full of board-mounted PCI flash cards and DRAM. We also hold down cost with our N+1 HA architecture, RAID 10HD data protection (See What You Need to Know About SSD HA and Data Protection and Why Kaminario’s DataProtect is a Big Deal), and the use of industry standard components, the PCIe bus, and market leading Fusion-io technology.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:bandwidth, data protection, disk form factor, DRAM, enterprise SSD, Flash, FusionIO, high availability, K2, Kaminario, latency, PCIe, RAID, reliability, Robin Harris, SPEAR, SSD, SSD array, Storage Mojo
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | 1 Comment »
