In the first post on the subject of Scale Up versus Scale Out, we looked at the reasons why scalability is a key requirement for storage platforms, as well as discussing the limits of Scale Up only architectures, i.e. systems where more capacity is added to the same fixed number of controllers. In this article, … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Scale Up vs Scale Out (Part 2) →

Imagine you want to buy some more storage for your laptop - let's say an external USB drive for backups. What are the fundamental questions you need to ask before you get down to the thorny issue of price? Typically, there is only one key question: How much capacity do I need? Of course there … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Scale Up vs Scale Out (Part 1) →

I want you to imagine that you are about to run a race. You have your trainers on, your pre-race warm up is complete and you are at the start line. You look to your right... and see the guy next to you, the one with the bright orange trainers, is hopping up and down on … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Active/Active versus Active/Passive →

Today's storage array market contains a wild variation of products: block storage, file storage or object storage; direct attached, SANs or NAS systems; fibre-channel, iSCSI or Infiniband... Even the SAN section of the market is full of diversity: from legacy hard disk drive-based arrays through the transitory step of tiered disk+flash hybrid systems and on to modern All-Flash Arrays (AFAs). If … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Controllers Are The New Bottleneck →

Sometimes the transition between two technologies is long and complicated. It may be that the original technology is so well established that it's entrenched in people's minds as simply "the way things are" - inertia, you might say. It could be that there is more than one form of the new technology to choose from, … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Hybrid Means Compromise →

In recent articles in this series I've been looking at the architectural choices for building All Flash Arrays (AFAs). I surmised that there are three main approaches: Hybrid Flash Arrays SSD-based All Flash Arrays Ground-Up All Flash Arrays (which from here on I'll refer to as Custom Flash Module arrays or CFM arrays) I've already blown metaphorical raspberries at … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: SSD-based versus Ground-Up Design →

What's the most important attribute to consider when you want to buy a new storage system? More critical than performance, more interesting than power and cooling requirements, maybe even more important than price? Whether it's an enterprise-class All Flash Array, a new drive for your laptop or just a USB flash key, the first question … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Where’s My Capacity? Effective, Usable and Raw Explained →

In the previous post of this series I outlined three basic categories of All Flash Array (AFA): the hybrid AFA, the SSD-based AFA and the ground-up AFA. This post addresses the first one and is therefore aimed at answering one of the questions I hear most often: why can't I just stick a bunch of SSDs … Continue reading All Flash Arrays: Can’t I Just Stick Some SSDs In My Disk Array? →