Comments on: Flash! EMC’s DMX is the New New Thing Again http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/01/14/flash-emcs-dmx-is-the-new-new-thing-again/ Understanding the accumulation of data Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:41:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Stephen http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/01/14/flash-emcs-dmx-is-the-new-new-thing-again/#comment-2021 Stephen Mon, 14 Jan 2008 20:06:24 +0000 http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/01/14/flash-emcs-dmx-is-the-new-new-thing-again/#comment-2021 Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Greg! Folks, I highly recommend Greg's StorageIO analysis. As you can see here, he really knows his stuff! Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Greg!

Folks, I highly recommend Greg’s StorageIO analysis. As you can see here, he really knows his stuff!

]]> By: gschulz http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/01/14/flash-emcs-dmx-is-the-new-new-thing-again/#comment-2019 gschulz Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:57:33 +0000 http://blog.fosketts.net/2008/01/14/flash-emcs-dmx-is-the-new-new-thing-again/#comment-2019 Steve you are spot on in saying that there are differences in SSD (FLASH vs. RAM) as well as packaging including standalone system (e.g. Solidatata, Imperial-RIP and others) vs. drive form factor (STEC, MTRON, Curtis, Samsung, etc.) vs. PCI card based accessible only to the server attached to them (e.g. FusionIO) vs. caching appliances like Gear6 among others) and even in the components, or consumer flash vs. enterprise flash and so forth. SSD in generally is on yet another one of its up cycles which we have seen several times over the past several decades, this time however particularly when you combine RAM+FLASH+HDD as part of a solution, we may not see the typical downside cycle of SSD as we have seen in the past. Heck you can even get a FLASH based SSD to install or retrofit your favorite laptop now. With each up cycle, we see new vendors; new packaging and so forth along the departure or demise of some others, and some even have hung around for a couple iterations. In the past SSD was about RAM storage with first battery backup (BBU) and then BBU + hard disk drive (HHDs) either standalone or mirrored or raid protected for persistency. Likewise SSD historically was perceived as only being for IOPS which in early generations was the case, however some later versions also do very well on bandwidth. What’s different about this new hybrid generation approach is that they leverage RAM as the cache to front end and mitigate the write downside to flash (wear and tear as well as performance), back to the future? Some of the HDDs manufactures have announced early generations of Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD) that combine some RAM plus some FLASH plus a regular HDD, we have seen some VARs do some creative packaging of the above combinations for a Hybrid, we have seen vendors like TMS combine RAM as the cache, and FLASH in a RAID5 for persistence and protection mode and now we come full circle to EMC and the DMX and FLASH, again, back to the future? Here's what's interesting is that the Symm/DMX uses RAM as cache (among other techniques and technologies) to boost HDD performance, now they use RAM to front end FLASH in a similar way as they have done in the past with HDDs. This is similar to what TMS is doing with their RAM-SAN500 which leverages the RAM as cache, and the FLASH as persistent storage. Folks it is back to the future yet moving ahead and welcome to the many faces of SSD that if not already in your future, will be sooner or later. Learn more about SSD and how FLASH based SSD can help achieve energy efficiency in the industry trends and perspective report at http://www.storageio.com/Reports/StorageIO_WP_Dec10_2007.pdf or other related material at www.storageio.com/xreports.htm. Cheers GS Steve you are spot on in saying that there are differences in SSD (FLASH vs. RAM) as well as packaging including standalone system (e.g. Solidatata, Imperial-RIP and others) vs. drive form factor (STEC, MTRON, Curtis, Samsung, etc.) vs. PCI card based accessible only to the server attached to them (e.g. FusionIO) vs. caching appliances like Gear6 among others) and even in the components, or consumer flash vs. enterprise flash and so forth.

SSD in generally is on yet another one of its up cycles which we have seen several times over the past several decades, this time however particularly when you combine RAM+FLASH+HDD as part of a solution, we may not see the typical downside cycle of SSD as we have seen in the past. Heck you can even get a FLASH based SSD to install or retrofit your favorite laptop now.

With each up cycle, we see new vendors; new packaging and so forth along the departure or demise of some others, and some even have hung around for a couple iterations. In the past SSD was about RAM storage with first battery backup (BBU) and then BBU + hard disk drive (HHDs) either standalone or mirrored or raid protected for persistency. Likewise SSD historically was perceived as only being for IOPS which in early generations was the case, however some later versions also do very well on bandwidth.

What’s different about this new hybrid generation approach is that they leverage RAM as the cache to front end and mitigate the write downside to flash (wear and tear as well as performance), back to the future? Some of the HDDs manufactures have announced early generations of Hybrid Hard Disk Drives (HHDD) that combine some RAM plus some FLASH plus a regular HDD, we have seen some VARs do some creative packaging of the above combinations for a Hybrid, we have seen vendors like TMS combine RAM as the cache, and FLASH in a RAID5 for persistence and protection mode and now we come full circle to EMC and the DMX and FLASH, again, back to the future?

Here’s what’s interesting is that the Symm/DMX uses RAM as cache (among other techniques and technologies) to boost HDD performance, now they use RAM to front end FLASH in a similar way as they have done in the past with HDDs. This is similar to what TMS is doing with their RAM-SAN500 which leverages the RAM as cache, and the FLASH as persistent storage.

Folks it is back to the future yet moving ahead and welcome to the many faces of SSD that if not already in your future, will be sooner or later. Learn more about SSD and how FLASH based SSD can help achieve energy efficiency in the industry trends and perspective report at http://www.storageio.com/Reports/StorageIO_WP_Dec10_2007.pdf or other related material at http://www.storageio.com/xreports.htm.

Cheers
GS

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