Flash Memory Summit: Intel-Based NVMe-oF System With WekaIO Matrix Storage Software

WekaIO, Inc., a high-performance cloud storage software company, is teaming up with Intel Corp. at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara, CA, to demonstrate a native NVMe-oF system on the new ‘ruler’ form factor for Intel SSDs which combined will deliver a storage capacity of beyond 1PB in 1U while delivering in excess of 3 million IO/s.
 
Just last month, WekaIO introduced at cloud-native scalable file system that delivers performance to applications, scaling to exabytes of data in a single namespace.

WekaIO Matrix software as showcased at FMS running on an NVME-oF system, equipped with ruler form factor for Intel SSDs. It is designed for data center racks to deliver high performance, space efficient capacity, and effective management and operations at scale.
 
Adding to the cloud inspired product line of the Intel SSD DC P4500 storage series, the ruler form factor for Intel SSDs uses the Matrix scale-out file system and Intel 3D NAND technology, scaling beyond 1PB of storage and 3 million IO/s in a 1U appliance. The 1U form factor delivers capacity per rack unit enabling rack consolidation at data center scale.
 
“Storage subsystem architectures have not kept pace with the rapid evolution of computing architectures. For many data-intensive use cases, I/O bottlenecks have hampered performance and scalability,” according to Julia Palmer, research directo, Gartner, et al.
 
“NVMe-based storage architectures eliminate sequential access barriers and protocol redundancies to provide dramatic efficiencies in bandwidth and latency characteristics. These new storage subsystem architectures can alleviate the I/O bottlenecks experienced in data-intensive use cases, enabling higher performance and scalability. Use cases that can benefit from higher-performance storage architectures include databases, HPC, virtualization and web applications,” according to Gartner, The Future of Hyperconverged and Integrated Systems Will Be Shaped by Shared Accelerated Storage, Julia Palmer, Stanley Zaffors, Joseph Unsworth, and Chirag Dekat, May 25, 2017.
 

Key features of the WekaIO solution include:

• A distributed file system to share data and meet full POSIX compliance
• Storage density scaling to beyond 1PB per rack unit
• Disaggregated storage that eliminates the need to retrofit existing servers and enables independent scaling of capacity
• Native NVMe for performance gains, lower latency and performance that is faster than traditional filers
   

“WekaIO is excited to work with Intel to demonstrate how our combined technologies can dramatically reduce a customer’s storage footprint with more capacity per unit and higher file performance that has yet to be seen on the market,” said Dr. Omri Palmon, co-founder and chief product officer, WekaIO. “These technologies have the potential to deliver an unmatched customer experience, making it easy to scale storage and ramp up performance to new levels without having to retrofit their existing hardware.”
 
“Intel has a long history of storage innovation. The new ruler form factor SSDs extend that history, providing new levels of high performance, dense storage at lower cost,” said James Myers, director of non-volatile memory solutions architecture, Intel. “Intel 3D NAND technology based ruler SSDs demonstrate unmatched physical space efficiency with spectacular performance for shared file storage.”
 
This technology is for organizations that require the highest possible performance in the smallest footprint, supporting data intensive and performance applications such as electronic design automation, IoT and real-time analytics and financial modeling.

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