FMS: WD Ultrastar Serv24-4N 4-Node NVMe All-Flash and Ultrastar Serv24+6 Hybrid Storage Server Up to 420TB Raw

Western Digital Corp. (WDC) announced two additions to its data center systems portfolio – the Ultrastar Serv24-4N four-node NVMe all-flash, and the Ultrastar Serv24+6 hybrid storage server platforms.

Ultrastar Serv24-4N four-node NVMe all-flash front and rear

These flexible and scalable storage server building blocks provide IT architects, cloud providers and system integrators with fast, dense and shared storage with compute for SDS, HCI and edge environments.

As organizations contend with tsunami of data, more and more IT leaders are turning toward cost-effective software-defined infrastructure, like SDS or HCI, to manage the complexities of storing, accessing, sharing and protecting data at scale. With most SDS and HCI benefits well known – such as lower cost, system scalability and hardware choice – IDC predicts that the SDS market will grow at a CAGR of 14.7% through 2022. The HCI market is anticipated to grow at a faster rate of 25.2% through 2022, according to the analyst firm.

Addressing these growing market segments, the company’s expanding portfolio of Ultrastar Serv platforms address the needs of a variety of use cases and environments, including ROBO, VDI, edge/IoT and video surveillance environments, test/development environments, and to facilitate backup and DR.

Ultrastar Serv24-4N 4-node NVMe all-flash storage server designed for HCI and Scale-Out SDS
It is designed for performance HCI deployments for data-intensive applications that depend on fast storage. It combines high compute density with an optimized design that maximizes the speed of NVMe SSDs.

Key highlights include:

Features four server nodes with each having dual CPUs with full, 24 PCIe lanes to 6 SSDs, extracting the performance of NVMe.
Includes Xeon Scalable processor CPUs and chipset. Core count and power can be selected to match data workloads and meet data center efficiency requirements.
Maximizes networking performance with three x16 PCIe slots per node.
Delivers HA and enterprise reliability with capacities up to 184TB raw.

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Ultrastar Serv24+6 high-density storage server balancing capacity and performance for SDS

Ultrastar Serv24+6 hybrid storage server front and rear

It is a high-density 2U hybrid storage server designed for data-intensive applications. Delivering the balance of capacity and compute performance, its SDS use cases include file services, media streaming, video surveillance, IoT data gathering, backup and archive, and big data analytics.

Key highlights include:

Maximizes capacity density with a solution, providing 24 HDD bays in 2U with the option of 4 additional HDD bays in the rear for a maximum capacity of up to 420TB raw.
Offers a choice of the latest performance Xeon Scalable processors, allowing customers to match processing capability to their workloads and power budget.
Provides the flexibility to choose SAS or SATA HDDs to balance application performance and cost requirements.
Delivers hybrid support with up to 6 NVMe SSDs in the rear bays for a data-acceleration tier to improve application performance.

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Both the Ultrastar Serv24-4N and Ultrastar Serv24+6 storage servers come with a 5-year limited warranty.

The Ultrastar Serv24-4N will be available this quarter in multiple configurations through the company’s network of distribution and channel partners. The Ultrastar Serv24+6 is sampling and will be available in volume by September.

“Our goal is to help our customers architect highly efficient and cost-effective infrastructures to get the most value from their data-all without sacrificing performance, reliability or data availability,” said Phil Bullinger, SVP and GM, data center systems business unit, Western Digital. “Whether customers are working with big data or fast data in small environments or in hyperscale cloud data centers, our complete portfolio of purpose-built storage solutions supports the most demanding performance and capacity needs while still providing the best TCO. Our new Ultrastar Serv platforms extend the value we offer to customers, enabling them to more effectively manage the complex world of data.“

“We have deepened our customer base in the ML and HPC markets over the last year with our joint solution on Western Digital’s NVMe platforms and the Weka File System. Now, with their expanded portfolio of platforms, we’re fueling innovation and pushing boundaries across a wide spectrum of applications requiring ultra-high file system performance running on Western Digital’s Ultrastar Serv24-4N NVMe storage server,” said Barbara Murphy, VP, marketing and products, WekaIO, Inc. “The WekaIO software, along with Western Digital’s NVMe platforms, delivers incredible economics driven by the right balance of high-performance flash and the highly efficient cost of petabyte-scale cloud object storage.“

“Customers need both convenience and maximum choice in scale-out block storage systems for ultra-demanding applications like transactional databases, data analytics, AI and ML. Western Digital provides both benefits with the option of incorporating Excelero’s NVMesh in its Ultrastar Serv24-4N storage server,” said Lior Gal, CEO and co-founder, Excelero Ltd., a software-defined block storage disruptor. “As the fastest scale-out NVMe block storage on the market, NVMesh running on the Ultrastar Serv24-4N with its NVMe drives helps IT teams deploy and scale fast and efficiently as underlying demand grows.“

Enterprise channel partner
The company also recently launched its enhanced Enterprise Partner Program with streamlined benefits, discounts and programs for its Intelliflash, ActiveScale and Ultrastar Platform brands. Solution and cloud providers are encouraged to apply for the program to access the selection of go-to-market resources and sales incentives. With the firm’s data center portfolio, partners can create solutions and services to solve customer challenges while helping them grow their business and maximize profitability.