FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Transcription

1 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Be fueled by SolidFire. Do what s never been done.

2 What Is SolidFire Agile Infrastructure (AI)? SolidFire AI is a series of pre-validated converged infrastructure designs thoroughly tested to ensure guaranteed workload performance, scalability, and flexibility for the modern data center. Built with SolidFire s all-flash storage system as the foundation, each AI design also includes industry-leading compute, networking, and orchestration technologies that dramatically reduce the cost, complexity, and time associated with the deployment of a cloud. Q: What configurations of SolidFire AI are available? SolidFire AI comes in four configurations: 1. AI for OpenStack with Dell compute and networking. AI for OpenStack with Cisco compute and networking. AI for VMWare with Cisco compute and networking. AI for VMware with Dell compute and networking Q: What types of use cases are a good fit for AI? Top use case targets for an AI solution include: software development lifecycle (DevOps and dev/test, QA staging, production) large-scale Web applications (e.g. -Tier LAMP Sstack) persistent block storage/on-premise Amazon-like elastic block storage or provisioned IOPS genome sequencing mobile app workloads ITaaS / private cloud database consolidation / Database as a Service (DBaaS) large-scale VDI deployments / Desktop as a Service (DaaS) public cloud / Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Q: What makes SolidFire AI different than other converged and hyper-converged options on the market? Unlike converged or hyper-converged solutions which are workload specific, pre-packed, siloed configurations that lock you into a vendor specific configuration, AI provides customers with the flexibility to choose their cloud path journey with best-ofbreed technology built to run multiple applications and workloads on a single storage platform, all while utilizing a minimal hardware footprint. Additionally, SolidFire AI affords the ability to scale compute and storage resources independently, which removes the need to buy more than is needed, and scale resources accordingly. AI provides customers with the flexibility to choose their cloud path journey with bestof-breed technology built to run multiple applications and workloads on a single storage platform, all while utilizing a minimal hardware footprint.

3 Q: What does a standard AI configuration look like? Networking () Dell s ()Dell s R TE U S YS M AS FAN P S Forc e S P R S SFP ACT ACT Forc e S AI is available through SolidFire s network of Certified Cloud Builder Partners, each possessing the skills and resources necessary to quickly deliver AI solutions. AI is not a SolidFire product with a SKU, but a bill of materials (BoM) that can be assembled by a partner. If you have an established preferred reseller, you can sales@ to determine if they are a part of the SolidFire Cloud Builder Program. STACK ID AC T 0 Ethernet USB-A Master PSU1 FAN1 RS- 1 AC T ALM SYS PSU FAN ACT USB-B STACK ID LNK E THE RN E T Master PSU1 FAN1 USB-B 9 ALM SYS PSU FAN ACT Ethernet USB-A Storage Scale Out Compute Scale Out Q: How is SolidFire AI delivered? E THE RN E T LN K 1 1 Compute LN K 0 RS- LNK/SPD 0 QSFP+ LNK LNK/SPD 0 (1) Dell R0 R S - Forc e S SFP+ 9 () SolidFire SF0 Storage Nodes 0 R TE U S YS M AS FAN P S 0 0 Storage QSFP+ Forc e S P Q: How long does does it take to add a storage node or server? Approximately 1 minutes after racking and cabling. Q: Can I add new nodes and storage without impacting my environment? Yes, the SolidFire Element operating system and the SolidFire AI reference architectures are designed specifically to enable scale out without service disruption to any application. Q: How does SolidFire AI scale? SolidFire AI reference architectures are purposely designed with elastic compute and storage modularity, allowing customers to scale each resource independently of the other, one storage node or one compute node/server at a time, without disruption to running applications.

4 Q: What if I prefer to purchase directly from SolidFire instead of through a partner? SolidFire has created the AI program for our Certified Cloud Builder Partners to provide a rapid and supported route of delivery to our customers. SolidFire understands that not all customers choose to initiate a reseller partner for implementation services, and has therefore provided a full compliment of supporting reference architecture guides for those customers who choose to deploy SolidFire AI themselves. Q: Who can help me with configuration, quoting, and ordering? Your Certified Cloud Builder AI-enabled Partner, along with a SolidFire account team, can help you with the purchasing process including configuration, quoting, and ordering. Q: What does a bill of materials (BoM) look like for AI? An AI BoM will include the complete hardware component listing including component category, description, part number, and quantity for each component. The BoM will not include the actual rack or management stack. An example of an AI BoM includes: Qty Vendor Component Cisco/Dell Switch with stacking module Cisco/Dell Network / Fibre channel switches Cisco/Dell Servers SolidFire SF0 storage node Q: How does pricing work between SolidFire, the technology partners, and the Certified AI-enabled Partner? RedHat Red Hat Enterprise Linux Openstack platform subscription Pricing is provided to the customer by the Certified AI-enabled Partner. SolidFire will facilitate the interaction including assisting with configuration. However, quoting is provided by the partner delivering the final configuration. Q: What is the support model for customers purchasing an AI solution? SolidFire Certified AI-enabled Partners are capable of handling Tier 1 support for all components of AI configurations and escalating to the appropriate technology partner. SolidFire will work with our technology and VAR partners to ensure proper support escalation procedures as outlined in our Cooperative Support Guidelines. Q: Where can I find additional information? For additional information or to request a demonstration, please visit /ai

5 About SolidFire SolidFire is the market leader in all-flash storage systems built for the Next Generation Data Center. Leveraging SolidFire s all-flash architecture, with volumelevel Quality of Service (QoS) controls, customers now can guarantee storage performance to thousands of applications within a shared infrastructure. Coupling this functionality with in-line data reduction techniques and system-wide automation results in substantial capital and operating cost savings relative to traditional disk and basic all-flash storage systems. 1 Pearl Street, Suite 0 Boulder, Colorado 00.. AI@