Guide to the Flash Storage Revolution

Transcription

1 Guide to the Flash Storage Revolution

2 The Flash Revolution is Here Flash storage technology has evolved to the point where it is now an affordable option for almost any enterprise environment. It s not just for specialty workloads anymore. If you are looking to implement new data repositories for your business or organization, this ebook will help you understand why it is now important to consider flash for your primary storage needs. Enhanced management capabilities combined with higher IOPS and decreased footprint have given it a distinct advantage over traditional storage solutions. 2

3 Affordability of All Flash Arrays Until recently, flash providers could not compete with the prices of spinning disk manufacturers for use as a primary storage solution. However, thanks to technological advancements, many organizations are starting to see solid state drives (SSDs) as a cost-effective alternative to traditional HDDs. The issue is that while they are generally faster, SSDs have also been more expensive and more limited in their capacity to this point. But now that vendors are coming out with drive sizes that are on par (if not greater) than traditional performance drives, the case is being made for flash everything. Coupled with the fact that most manufacturers are pairing flash capabilities with technologies such as deduplication and compression, flash is blowing performance standards out of the water while reducing the overall storage footprint. While the cost per raw GB is still more than the typical storage array, flash can now give you the capacity and IO you need without having to deal with racks and racks of storage space. Not Just a Real-Time Solution It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies with performance hungry applications to meet their demands for low latency storage using HDD and workarounds. Flash offers the high IOPS needed (hundreds of thousands of IOs per second) with sub-millisecond latency, and has now become a major consideration not only for real-time applications, but also as a primary storage solution. 3 Whether it s accelerating database workloads, consolidating a virtual server or desktop, or managing an influx of company data, everything happens much faster, with higher reliability and lower cost. The bottom line is that flash has become the go-to standard for performance hungry applications and primary storage needs.

4 Why it Helps to Organize Your Data The way enterprises tier and designate their storage requirements is facing a rapid evolution. Flash has become the go-to storage technology for production applications, whereas traditional hard disks are being used mostly for data that is low-read. So how should companies adapt to the changing environment? By gaining a firm understanding of their storage needs and structuring it accordingly. For instance, flash performance is not necessarily economical for backup and data replicas. If you re not using the data all that much or if it s just there for storing and doesn t need a high active workload, it would be a waste of money to put backup data on a flash tier. For primary storage needs such as databases, , and transaction processing it s a different story. Even if used just to speed up the backend on slow-performing applications, flash arrays will quickly prove their worth. Regardless of your tier structure, you will end up storing more on the SSD than you would on the spinning drive due to efficiencies provided by the array manufacturers (deduplication, compression, data reduction, etc.). Some have used flash to address poor performing workloads or poorly written applications. However, while flash can help mask problems, it is always important to look at the root cause of the issue. If the high IOPS on the backend are helping a poorly written application, investing in faster technology may be throwing money at the wrong problem. Relying on the enhanced hardware can cause companies to overlook issues that need to be addressed within the development team. 4

5 Gain Control and Save on Your Power Bills Currently, solid state storage offers the greatest efficiencies among data solutions. In some cases, 4 racks of traditional high end storage can be replaced by ¼ of one rack of flash array. Besides the savings on space, power consumption from cooling is dramatically lowered with the latest SSDs, and application performance is greatly increased. When it comes to managing your environment, simplified backup and recovery management, along with automatic storage tiering can help you significantly reduce your overhead. At the end of the day, you re taking up less physical space while saving on power consumption and the costs of managing your storage. Who wouldn t want to see what that could do to the bottom line? 5

6 Flash has Come a Long Way It s not just for specialty workloads anymore. It s for everything now. For virtually any environment, flash can be a great fit, not just for high transactions or real time activity. The price point is now affordable for everybody, not just those who can pay a premium for targeted improvement. Flash is affordable and viable for most primary storage environments and enterprise workloads. It is no longer a virtualization-first technology. The capability and price point are right. The footprint is minimal (one rack s worth of traditional storage fits on two shelves). If you re looking to upgrade your storage options, now is a great time to seriously consider taking the next step with flash. 6

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