SoftIron Introduces HyperDrive Performance+ Ceph-Optimized SDS 1U Appliances

SoftIron Ltd. introduced its Ceph-optimized, SDS appliance family, HyperDrive Performance+.

Leveraging the AMD EPYC 3000 processor, the Performance+ family debuts the company’s first x86 CPU and NVMe SSD-based designs to be introduced in its HyperDrive series of storage appliances.

With the initial appliances in the HyperDrive Performance+ family (models HD61026 and HD61052), the company is targeting edge computing deployments, where high-performance, low latency operation is needed in situations where space, power, and cooling are challenges. These appliances are in use cases where compact clusters are desired in order to ingest data as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. These include applications such as M&E content delivery, CGI rendering, tier one research computing, fintech applications, and AI training. HyperDrive Performance+ appliances consume less than 250W of power each and provide line-rate throughput with 25GbE network connectivity, providing a balance of performance and power for edge and remote workloads. Used in conjunction with other members of the HyperDrive family, and capitalizing on the automatic tiering capabilities of Ceph, These appliances are also a solution in larger storage infrastructures for the provision of a performance caching tier over less powerful, but more cost-effective spinning disk-based deployments.

“SoftIron has always been oriented towards providing the best performance value for challenging computing environments. Recent events have accelerated the need for solutions optimized around this value-proposition, as the Covid-19 pandemic changes the way both edge and even traditional data center solutions are being implemented,” said Phil Straw, CEO. “Our customers are increasingly telling us that they need to build cost-effective edge computing deployments that deliver efficient, resilient, performance that require as little specialized support as possible. SoftIron is committed to engineering solutions for the issues that organizations are facing today as they push computing into places that were previously unthinkable. We are the leaders in delivering the scalability and reliability that mission-critical applications require, while freeing our customers from the vendor lock-in challenges of proprietary solutions.“

The HyperDrive Performance+ family continues the company‘s commitment to right-sizing data center appliances to provide flexible, and durable SDS in an efficient form factor. As with all of the firm’s storage appliances, these models are engineered to maximize the operation of Ceph by eliminating I/O bottlenecks and hardware waste common in storage solutions that use commercial off-the-shelf (commodity) hardware.

The company creates appliances for efficient, scale-out data center solutions, delivering performance on all critical metrics including density, efficiency, capacity, speed, and heat emission. Performance breakthroughs are enabled through task-specific specialization; optimizing the performance of its operating software at a granular level and thus creating the ultimate productization of open source Ceph. The firm’s controls the entire design and build process, producing all their products within their own manufacturing facilities. As a result, the firm offers Secure Provenance which is the auditable provenance on all of its data center appliances. This ensures that units are ‘clear-box’ solutions, free of hidden componentry that is often at the root of common supply chain attacks.

The HyperDrive Performance+ family of products are available for POC and purchase. The company offers both traditional purchasing (Capex) and as-a-Service (Opex) options.