Posts Tagged ‘Disk latency’
Posted March 4th, 2013
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Next Phase of the MLC Flash Revolution – General Purpose Storage
USERS WANT SCALABILITY, DATA PROTECTION AND STORAGE PERFORMANCE TOO
By Kaminario
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In 2013, MLC Flash as general purpose storage will be a major area of industry attention because users are demanding many of the same features they are used to getting with HDD technology but with the added capabilities of MLC Flash. Customers must have scalability and data protection as well as performance to make the case to jump to SSD.
Focus on Scalability
Scalability is a cornerstone element of a general purpose storage strategy and a solid differentiator for Kaminario. However, we view it a little differently than other vendors:
Linear Scalability: Grow Capacity Not Complexity
There is a difference between adding capacity and scalability. Adding capacity is stacking storage hardware while scalability is intelligently absorbing storage. We view scalability as linear and driven by powerful software like SPEAR to enable distributed workloads managed from a single console. Linear scalability increases operational efficiencies and ease-of-use. Simply adding capacity means multiple management consoles, more complexity and more points-of-failure.
Linear Scalability Enables Consistent Performance of Mixed Workloads
Our view of true scalability provides users with consistent latency as IOPS and bandwidth are scaled up. Users should not have to pay a performance tax for consolidating applications or deploying data protection features. There should be no performance surprises.
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Tags:application performance, Database Performance, Disk latency, Flash SSD, I/O bottlenecks, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, solid-state SAN storage, SPEAR, Storage Performance
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | No Comments »
Posted December 4th, 2012
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Kaminario K2 Now Certified as VMware Ready
TIGHT INTEGRATION WITH VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTIONS CRITICAL
By Kaminario
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Yesterday, we announced that the Kaminario K2 all solid-state SAN storage solution achieved VMware Ready™ status. This news hints a little bit about the role we see for SSDs in the enterprise data center over the next few years. We believe that SSDs will become the standard for replacing hard disk and hybrids for general purpose storage.
In today’s IT environment, being the best at general purpose storage requires tight integration with virtualization solutions. For this reason, we consider being certified as VMware Ready to be a significant corporate milestone.
Kaminario has also joined the VMware Technology Alliance Partner Program to show customers the benefits of the two company’s products working together seamlessly. Our participation will also make it easier for organizations researching VMware solutions to compare what we offer against other marketplace options.
Check out our new page on the VMware Solution Exchange. You can get details on Kaminario’s VMware certification and K2 benefits such as performance, scalabilty and data protection.
I’d just like to add a word of thanks to the engineers and others from both companies who worked diligently to make this happen. We’re proud to work with VMware to enable large and mid-size organizations to get the most return on their data center investments.
Tags:application performance, Database Performance, DataProtect, Disk latency, IOPS, Kaminario, VMware certified, VMware Ready
Posted in Virtualization | No Comments »
Posted October 23rd, 2012
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Application Performance Highlights Oracle OpenWorld
SSD CAN MAKE THE DIFFERENCE
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
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This year’s Oracle OpenWorld proved both exciting and enlightening as Larry Ellison described Oracle’s cloud vision, including a new multitenant database robust enough for both public and private cloud deployments. There was also a lot of talk about hardware and software working together to achieve superfast DBMS performance, which was why we were happy to demonstrate a Flash-configured Kaminario K2 chugging through a typical database workload at more than 2 million IOPs and 20 GB/s throughput with an ultra-low latency of .98 milliseconds. Since performance and availability go hand in hand, we also demonstrated the K2’s DataProtect self healing and fast snapshot capabilities running an Oracle DBMS. Finally, we took the opportunity to survey more than 400 booth visitors about application performance, flash, and business impacts. The results were striking for the impact SSD can make not only on performance, but on the business.
Here are some of the highlights of our survey:
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Tags:application performance, Database Performance, Disk latency, Flash memory, Flash SSD, high availability, I/O bottlenecks, I/O Performance, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, OLTP, Oracle OpenWorld, RDBMS Performance, Storage Performance
Posted in Oracle Database Performance | No Comments »
Posted June 25th, 2012
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Kaminario Will Always Be All Solid-State SAN Storage
THOUGHTS ON A POST BY RUBEN SPRUIJT
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
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One of the challenges of offering a unique product is that sometimes it can be difficult for outsiders to classify it with other solutions in the market. So we see, from time to time, published articles that either put the K2 in the wrong bucket or don’t describe the K2’s capabilities completely.
Such is the case with a recent blog by Ruben Spruijt that discusses different types of SSD solutions including hybrid file systems, Flash-only arrays and server-side Flash. While it is true that the Kaminario K2 offers a single enclosure for blade servers connected with Flash, it is not accurate to include the K2 in the server-side Flash category. Spruijt does not specifically call out Kaminario as a server-side SSD solution, but it appears that way from the mention.
Kaminario Makes All Solid-State SAN Storage — Absent a category for all solid-state SAN storage to include Flash and DRAM, Spruijt should have mentioned the K2 in his Flash-only array discussion. As my colleague Eyal Markovich said, “server-based PCIe cards are, by nature, local to the server, so they cannot serve as part of a server cluster. That means they’re out as an SSD solution for running Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) or an SQL Server instance as part of a Microsoft Cluster. Since the K2 is SAN-based, it fully supports these clustering configurations.” This is just one example why readers should understand that the K2 is a solid-state SAN storage array versus a server-side SSD solution.
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Tags:application performance, database, Database Performance, DataProtect, Disk latency, Flash, Flash SSD, high availability, I/O bottlenecks, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, Storage Performance, writes
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | No Comments »
Posted May 14th, 2012
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Thoughts on Solving Oracle Performance Problems
SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FLASH CACHING APPLIANCES AND SSD SANS IN ORACLE APPLICATIONS
By Eyal Markovich
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George Crump, of Storage Switzerland, published an interesting post recently titled Cost Effectively Solving Oracle Performance Problems. Crump explains the challenges of solving Oracle storage performance problems (including several Oracle instances) while keeping Oracle data in shared storage.
In his analysis, Crump details three solid-state storage solutions that address Oracle performance:
- Augmentation to existing mechanical storage via tiering or caching;
- Using SSD on Oracle’s application server itself to cache data;
- Using forklift upgrade solutions or database machines such as Oracle Exadata.
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Tags:application performance, database, Disk latency, Flash, I/O bottlenecks, K2, Kaminario, OLTP, Oracle, Oracle database, preferred read
Posted in Oracle Database Performance | No Comments »
Posted May 2nd, 2012
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Kaminario’s Dani Golan Speaks at Tech Field Day
SOLID-STATE STORAGE IS THE NEXT BIG IT REVOLUTION
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
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Last week, Kaminario CEO Dani Golan presented at Stephen Foskett’s Tech Field Day in San Jose. The event afforded us the opportunity to have conversations with several data storage bloggers including Howard Marks, Nigel Poulton, Chris Evans, Ray Lucchesi, Robin Harris and Hans DeLeenheer to name a few.
I was fortunate to be in the room, and the feedback I heard is gratifying. In fact, DeLeenheer published his thoughts about Kaminario in his blog and said we were worth watching.
In addition to providing a K2 product overview, Golan shared insights about the SSD market and where Kaminario fits. “Solid-state storage is the biggest storage revolution in the last 30 years…one of the biggest in IT since virtualization.”
One of the effects of this revolution is that definitions for high end, mid range and low end are being turned on their head. Improving price/performance and increasing application requirements make it tough to distinguish among tier 0, tier 1, tier 2 etc. I would argue “that our software stack is far superior to a $3 million high-end [HDD] array,” Golan said.
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Tags:Database Performance, Disk latency, DRAM, DRAM Storage, DRAM-based SSD Appliances, Flash, Flash SSD, Foskett, IOPS, Kaminario, Tech Field Day
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | 1 Comment »
Posted April 16th, 2012
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Does Your SSD Array Protect Your Data?
ASK YOUR STORAGE VENDOR THESE QUESTIONS
By Kaminario
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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.
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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
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Reflections on a Launch
A MONTH HAS PASSED SINCE KAMINARIO INTRODUCED DATAPROTECT
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
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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.
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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
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Which Data Protection Features Would You Like to See in SSD SAN Storage Arrays?
CALL FOR YOUR OPINION
By Kaminario
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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 December 13th, 2011
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More Discussion about MLC Flash and the Enterprise
EETIMES COLUMNIST SAYS INNOVATION IS MAKING MLC VIABLE
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
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If you are considering migrating to flash SSD storage, you need to understand that there are two types of flash SSD. There are single-layer cell (SLC) NAND flash chips and multiple-layer cell (MLC) NAND flash chips. Essentially, MLC is less expensive and offers more capacity than SLC though SLC is generically faster. A knock on MLC is that the chips wear out quicker than SLC chips because additional work is required by the controller accessing the additional capacity.
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Tags:application performance, Disk latency, DRAM Storage, Kaminario, Kaminario K2, MLC Flash, solid-state SAN storage, SSD, SSD appliances, Storage, Storage Performance
Posted in SSD Architectures | No Comments »
