Posts Tagged ‘K2’
Posted May 23rd, 2013
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Resilient Flash Arrays …Anyone?
By Shachar Fienblit
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As enterprises demand more speed and agility from their infrastructures, the performance advantages of flash are critical for addressing the requirements of next-generation businesses. In building an enterprise-ready all-flash solution, we knew our architecture had to solve some of the technical challenges that hadn’t been successfully addressed in the past. This included resiliency, data protection, and scalability.
One of the critical areas we’ve been able to address with a breakthrough solution has been in extending the endurance of flash technology. Endurance is a critical factor in making flash enterprise ready. In fact, one vendor recently released a study in which 77% of respondents said that they believed that the endurance of flash memory is the key to the widespread adoption of SSDs in the enterprise.
How have we been able to achieve new levels of endurance? It all starts, of course, with SPEAR (Scale-Out Performance and Resilience Architecture), which is the foundation for our recently introduced fourth-generation K2 all-flash storage array. As a true scale-out architecture, SPEAR enables us to spread the load very intelligently to maximize flash endurance. Here are some of the keys:
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SPEAR utilizes a system-wide write cache that eliminates hot spots.
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By using cache for writes, SPEAR is able to minimize the number of writes and distribute writes across all flash media in the system. The system never writes to the same place twice.
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SPEAR’s efficient management of metadata eliminates writes to the flash during updates and facilitates space-efficient snapshots that do not incur additional writes.
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K2 deploys the highest enterprise-grade SSDs with advanced flash management capabilities that optimize the endurance of the flash.
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Writes in K2 are always sequential to the flash media.
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SPEAR uses advanced error correction
By building all of these features and functions into SPEAR, Kaminario has been able to prolong the endurance of flash far beyond the spec limits of flash manufacturers, and beyond the limits of almost every competitor building all-flash arrays. When it comes to endurance for enterprise-ready flash arrays, we continue to lead the industry.
Check out our white paper on SPEAR Architecture.
Tags:Flash SSD, K2, resiliency, SPEAR
Posted in SSD Architectures, SSD Storage Performance | No Comments »
Posted April 17th, 2013
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Delivering on Our Vision for Enterprise Storage
By Dani Golan
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Today is an important day, not just for Kaminario but, we believe, for the entire enterprise storage industry. Today is the day we announce the Kaminario fourth-generation K2 all-flash storage array. What is so important about our fourth-generation product? Here are a few key points:
Breakthrough TCO: With K2 v4 we have been able to increase the density by more than 500% while cutting the price in half. Why is this so significant? Lowering the cost of enterprise-ready solid-state flash storage has been one of the long-time goals of the industry. If you believe, as we do, that solid-state is the future of Tier One storage, then it must be cost-efficient for all applications, not just those requiring the highest levels of performance. And now it is. What’s more, Kaminario’s TCO breakthrough extends the viability of solid-state to a new class of mid-size customers who can now afford unprecedented levels of performance, resiliency and ease of use from their storage infrastructures.
Killer Performance: Even before today’s announcement Kaminario delivered by far the best performance in the industry, with world record SPC-1 results for sustained performance and price/performance. With K2 v4 we now have 400% more read/write bandwidth than our previous versions, with consistently low latency (120-microsecond writes). Topping it off, we still offer industry-leading IOPS performance. K2 v4 delivers significant across-the-board performance advantages over any other solution for any combination of workloads, be they OLTP, OLAP or virtualization. It’s a level of performance consistency that is unparalleled in the industry.
Bulletproof Resiliency: Our proven SPEAR Scale-Out Architecture maintains data integrity through any type of failure. For most workloads the performance levels of our solutions will be minimally impacted—usually less than 10%. We even guarantee that degradation will max out at 25%. What’s more, our snapshots are the most efficient in the storage industry, enabling instant restore and recovery from any snapshot with no impact on the performance of the production environment. Snaps can be taken in just milliseconds, 20 times faster than any legacy SAN system on the market today. We make snapshots sexy.
These are major advances in solid-state that have been more than five years in the making. They move storage technology to a whole new level. Don’t just take our word for it: Take a look at the new architectural white paper or better yet, the independent report.
On a personal note, it is an important day for me, as well as for the entire team here at Kaminario. From the beginning we envisioned a new era in enterprise storage driven by solid-state flash and a true scale-out architecture. As of today, that vision is a reality. What’s next? We can’t wait to tell you…
Tags:application performance, Database Performance, Flash, Flash SSD, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, latency, OLAP, OLTP, reads, Solid State Storage, SSD, Storage Performance, virtualization, writes
Posted in All Flash Storage Array | No Comments »
Posted March 25th, 2013
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Good Riddance Indeed to the Spinning Disk Era
INFOWORLD AUTHOR LAMENTS USE OF ANCIENT STORAGE TECH
By Kaminario
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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 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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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 February 26th, 2013
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Measure Performance Over Time and with Three Dimensions
ANALYST SURVEY LOOKS AT REAL-WORLD IOPS REQUIREMENTS
By Kaminario
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Tom Coughlin and Jim Handy, respected storage analysts, conducted a survey on how many IOPS are really needed for several popular enterprise applications to better understand real-world IOPS requirements. They asked respondents about their critical storage applications and how many IOPS those applications needed. More than 80 percent of their initial respondents said that their key app was a database, an OLTP solution or a Cloud storage service. About half of the respondents said their IOPS needs were in the 1k to 100k range. Coughlin and Handy note that other factors like latency contribute to overall performance, not just speed. You can view research details from a presentation that Tom did at the SNIA Storage Developer conference, How Many IOPS is Enough? or get the full report at How Many IOPS Do You Really Need?
Measure Consistent Performance
I am bringing this up now as a way to comment on how Kaminario looks at performance. We do not see performance as a point in time such as timing a runner in a single forty-yard dash. True performance is measured by consistency of speed and results over time and as capacity and applications are added. You shouldn’t necessarily buy an all-Flash array based of the performance of a single app because there are so many variables that can come into play down the road. This is one of the reasons that Kaminario is taking the general purpose storage approach with the K2. We think it is smarter to evaluate a Flash storage system in the context of your entire storage environment and future app needs. You don’t want to buy a system that gives you great value up front but falls short in mixed workload environments. You don’t want to have to buy a separate storage system when you introduce a new application or need to drastically scale up capacity.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:application performance, Database Performance, Flash SSD, high availability, I/O bottlenecks, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, latency, RDBMS Performance, Solid State Storage, Storage Performance
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | No Comments »
Posted January 23rd, 2013
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Shared SSD Arrays for Big Data Performance and Reliability
Speed isn’t everything
By Kaminario
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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 November 5th, 2012
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The Hybrid Solution: Best of Both Worlds? Not!
THERE ARE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES TO MIXING LEGACY DISK WITH SSD
By Gareth Taube, Vice President Marketing, Kaminario
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Hybrid is an up and coming enterprise storage architecture, advocated by many legacy storage vendors, that supposedly gives you the best of both worlds: the seasoned storage and reliability architecture of a longstanding enterprise storage leader combined with fast SSD, often from an up and coming SSD startup. One such solution, described in this InfoStor article Gridiron Launches SSD-Accelerated OneAppliance Array, combines NetApp’s E-5400 Series storage array with GridIron’s flash-based TurboCharger Appliance. On its face, this sounds like a great solution, as you get NetApp’s tried and tested high availability, replication, and synchronization features with the fast performance of GridIron’s SSD. However, if you’re considering a solution like this, make sure you ask the right questions.
Is SSD used as a cache or mainstream storage? Many of these solutions, including NetApp’s, use SSD as a cache sitting in front of legacy hard disk storage, not as direct storage. Cache can speed up many applications, but it’s not an ideal solution if you need the absolute highest performance you can get from random, write heavy applications such as online transaction processing (OLTP). First, until the architecture figures out which data to put in the cache you’re going to get slow hard-disk-style I/O performance. Second, with a cache architecture writes are often made directly to hard disk rather than to fast SSD, so write-heavy applications such as OLTP don’t benefit from cache as much as they do from direct SSD storage. Finally, you’re not getting maximum storage efficiency as most of the data in the cache is duplicated on the hard disk.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:availability, cache, DataProtect, E-5400 storage array, enterprise storage, GridIron, hybrid, InfoStor, K2, Kaminario, legacy storage vendors, NetApp, OLTP, Online Transaction Processing, reads, replication, snapshot, SSD, storage controller, synchronization, TurboCharger, writes
Posted in Hybrid Storage | 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 October 4th, 2012
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Performance is serious business, not a game
KAMINARIO RESPONDS TO COMMENTS FROM A STORY IN THE REGISTER
By Shachar Fienblit
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Editor’s note: Chris Mellor, of The Register, wrote an article about the K2 exceeding two million IOPS last Monday. Violin’s Jon Bennett posted a comment on the article. Kaminario’s response follows.
The comments written by Violin’s CTO mix apples and oranges from multiple benchmark data points resulting in false conclusions. Let me clearly and factually present the truth.
First, Kaminario did two different benchmarks: an audited SPC-1 benchmark designed to give customers an apples to apples comparison of vendor performance with an industry standard workload, and a second benchmark based on an IOmeter-based random read only workload identical to what Violin promoted at VMworld.
SPC-1, as the market knows, is a well-defined benchmark and has a very high write component (2/3). The result from that benchmark was 1.2M SPC-1 IOPS at a cost of $0.40 per SPC-1 IOP. World records! Clear, factual, audited. Violin is welcome to join us in the peer review of SPC-1 and do the benchmark.
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Tags:application performance, Database Performance, Flash SSD, I/O bottlenecks, IOPS, K2, OLTP, SSD, Storage Performance
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | No Comments »
Posted October 4th, 2012
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The K2 Tops Two Million IOPS Using a Single All-Flash Storage System
TEST RESULT SHOWS SPEAR SCALE-OUT ARCHITECTURE IDEAL FOR APPS REQUIRING HEAVY DUTY PERFORMANCE
By Kaminario
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As a follow up to the record breaking SPC-1 results we announced last July, this week at Oracle OpenWorld, Kaminario announced the company has achieved more than two million IOPS and 20 GB/s throughput using MLC Flash in a Kaminario K2.
The new result reaffirms the power and scalability of the SPEAR scale-out architecture to deliver premium storage performance without sacrificing data protection.
Respected analyst firm The Taneja Group reviewed and validated the test results. A full audit report will be published shortly.
Tags:application performance, Database Performance, Flash SSD, I/O bottlenecks, IOPS, K2, Kaminario, Kaminario K2, OLTP, OOW, Storage Performance
Posted in SSD Storage Performance | No Comments »
