The SNIA SSSI in the news.
This week, the SSSI formally released the Enterprise Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification. The SSS PTS provides standard test methodology for measuring the performance of Enterprise-class SSDs, so that the performance of products from different manufacturers may be fairly compared. The press release can be found here.
The Enterprise SSS PTS may be downloaded from here.
A Client (single user) SSS PTS is planned to be released in Q3 2011.
SSSI will be in booth 616 at Storage Networking World in the Santa Clara Convention Center on April 5-6. The booths are open 12:30-3:00PM and 5:30-7:30PM on Tuesday, plus 11:00AM-3:00PM on Wednesday.
The SSSI booth will feature a demonstration of the Performance Test Specification by Calypso on their tester. White papers and other information on SSDs will be available as well.
SSSI has been working with Storage Strategies NOW (www.ssg-now.com) on a survey about solid state storage technology adoption, practice, and deployment. We’ll have copies of the survey in the booth or it can be completed on-line at http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/476489/Solid-State-and-High-Speed-Memory-Adoption-Practice-and-Deployment. Qualified responses will receive a $7.50 Amazon gift card or have the option to have it donated to the Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.
Come to SNW and ask SSSI about SSDs.
The Enterprise Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification v1.0 draft has been posted at http://www.snia.org/publicreview/ and is available for download. [Update: released specification is now available here.]
The Enterprise SSS PTS provides a standard way of measuring the performance of SSDs for Enterprise applications, thus enabling fair comparisons of SSDs from different suppliers.
It is anticipated that final release of the Enterprise SSS PTS will occur in April 2011.
Work is ongoing in the SSS Technical Work Group on development of a Client SSS PTS.
More information about the SSS PTS can be found at http://www.snia.org/forums/sssi/knowledge/education/.
SSSI will be at Storage Visions in Las Vegas on January 4-5. Our booth will feature a demonstration of Storage Pairing (HDD + SSD) technology, details about the SSS Performance Test Specification, and lots of informative white papers & other literature.
For more information about the show, see www.storagevisions.com, and for the latest information about Solid State Storage, visit SSSI in booth #4.
SSSI authors have created a number of interesting and useful white papers recently.
Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification (SSS PTS) White Paper describes the soon to be released SSS PTS and explains the test methodologies contained therein.
SSSI Glossary is a collection of terminology that will be a valuable reference for those wishing to better understand Solid State Storage. It will be updated with new terms regularly.
SSS PTS Case Study illustrates how the SSS PTS can be used to compare the performance of SSDs by describing the test results of 17 different SSDs.
These white papers and others can be found at http://www.snia.org/forums/sssi/knowledge/education/.
DISKCON USA 2010 – Santa Clara, CA
September 9 & 10, 2010 – Conference and Trade show, Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara, CA
Keynote Dinner – September 9, 2010 – Santa Clara Convention Center, Ballrooms E&F, 6pm No Host Cocktails and 7pm Dinner
Announcing our Keynote Dinner Speaker – Clod Barrera, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Technical Strategist for IBM’s Systems Storage, “The Innovator’s Dream – Storage Systems in an Age of New Requirements and New Technology”
Exhibit hours: Thu 10 am – 5 pm; Fri 10 am – 4 pm
Note: SNIA SSSI members will speak at the following times:
Tom Coughlin – Friday, September 10, 2010
# 1:15pm – 4:30pm
# Futures of Storage
Tom Coughlin, Eden Kim – Friday, September 10, 2010
# 9:00am – 12:00noon
# Market Analyst Session
# Dr. Tom Coughlin, Founder & President, Coughlin & Associates: Invest in New Technologies or Divest in Market Share: Hard Disk Drive and Component Companies Face a Critical Decision to Grow or Die
#Eden Kim, CEO, Calypso Systems, Inc.: Calypso 2010 Blind Survey of SSD Performance
#Esther Spanjer, Director, SSD Technical Marketing, SMART Modular Technologies – Poster Session: Enterprise SSD vs. Client SSD
Violin Memory introduced their 3000 series memory appliance in mid-May. This million-plus-IOPS device piles 10-20 terabytes of NAND flash storage into a single 3U cabinet at a price that Violin’s management claims is equivalent to that of high-end storage arrays.
The system, introduced at $20/GB, or $200,000, is intended to provide enough storage at a low enough price to eliminate any need to manage hot data into and out of a limited number of small solid state drives. Instead, Violin argues, the appliance’s capacity is big enough and cheap enough that an entire database can be economically stored within it, giving lightning-fast access to the entire database at once.
Note that Violin acquired Gear6 a month later, in mid-June. This seems to reveal that the company is hedging its bets, taking advantage of a distressed caching company’s expertise to assure a strong position in architectures based upon a smaller memory appliance managed by caching software.
There is a good bit of detail about how and why both of these approaches make sense in Objective Analysis’ newest Enterprise SSD report. See the Objective Analysis Reports page for more information.
But in regard to the Series 3000, CIOs whose databases are even larger than 10TB will be comforted to hear that Violin will be introducing appliances with as much as 60TB of storage by year-end.
Violin’s 3000 series can be configured through a communications module to support nearly any interface: Fibre Channel, 10Gb Ethernet, FCOE, PCIe, with Violin offering to support “Even InfiniBand, if asked.” Inside are 84 modules, each built of a combination of DRAM and both SLC and MLC NAND flash, configured to assure data and pathway redundancy.
This high level of redundancy and fault management is one of Violin’s hallmarks.
Violin’s website is Violin-Memory.com
San Francisco’s Nimbus Data Systems launched a solid state storage system in late April that is intended to replace all the HDDs used in a system except for slow disks used in near line storage. Nimbus holds a viewpoint that solid-state drives eliminate the need for fast disk storage, and that in future times all data centers will be built using only SSDs for speed and capacity drives (slow HDDs) for mass storage. This viewpoint is gaining a growing following.
Nimbus’ S-Class Enterprise Flash Storage System uses a proprietary 6GB SAS flash module, rather than off-the-shelf SSDs, to keep the costs low in their systems. Storage capacity is 2.5-5.0TB per 2U enclosure, and can be scaled up to 100TB. Throughput is claimed to be 500K IOPS through 10Gb Ethernet connections. Prices are roughly $8/GB.
Although Nimbus previously sold systems based on a mix of SSDs and HDDs, they have moved away from using HDDs, and expect for data center managers to adopt this new approach.
There’s merit to this argument, but it will probably take a few years before CIOs agree on the role of NAND flash vs. enterprise HDDs vs. capacity HDDs in the data center. There’s a lot more detail on the approaches being considered for flash in the enterprise data center in Objective Analysis’ new Enterprise SSD report. See the Objective Analysis Reports page for more information.
You can find out more at NimbusData.com
A new article, co-authored by myself and Tom Coughlin, can now be read from the SNIA Europe website. “Solid State Drives for Energy Savings” explains the energy benefits that are being discovered when IT managers start to bring SSDs into their data centers.
The article is a quick two pager, and it introduces SNIA’s new TCO Calculator (Total Cost of Ownership), a clever tool that helps estimate the power, rack space, and other savings that come along with a conversion of fast storage from enterprise HDDs to SSDs.
[Update: After clicking on the above link, it will be necessary to download the April 2010 edition of Storage Networking Times, in order to read the article.]
SSSI and SSS TWG:
The SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) recently noted the transition in leadership from founding Chair Phil Mills of IBM. Phil Mills, Secretary of the SNIA Board of Directors, drove formation of the SSSI in late 2008 and was instrumental in developing the Initiative’s organizational mission and objectives as well as forming the associated SNIA Solid State Storage Technical Working Group. Due in large part to Phil’s Herculean efforts, the SSSI was successful in attaining critical mass by recruiting 26 founding members – a number that continued to grow to the current membership of 34 SSSI member companies, along with 56 SSS TWG member companies.
SSSI Mission:
The founding mission statement of the SSSI articulated a dedication to “foster the growth and success of the solid state storage market for client and enterprise applications… that encompasses marketing outreach, education, collaboration with SSS industry standards bodies, development of SNIA SSS Specifications and Standards (such as the SSS TWG), and a close following of advancements in non-volatile memory for solid state mass storage.”
Progress to Date:
Taking stock of the SSSI at this transition point, it is clear that the SSSI has been very successful in effecting these goals. The SSSI has active committees for Marketing, Business Development, Education, Technical Development and SSS Total Cost of Ownership. In conjunction with the work in the SSS TWG, the SSSI has made great strides in all areas. Deliverables achieved to date include establishment of the SSSI as THE authoritative voice on Solid State Storage Performance, collaboration and cooperation with other Standards groups and Trade Associations (JEDEC, SSDA, and others), completion of several key white papers and tutorials on many aspects of solid state storage, industry noted presentations and presence at trade shows and events, completion of a TCO calculator for SSS, on-going investigations in emerging areas of SSS technologies (such as “drive pairing” and “storage tiering”) and imminent release of the SSS TWG Performance Test Specification for Public Technical Review – the industry’s first SSS Performance Specification whose goal is to help standardize the nomenclature, metrics, methodologies, tests and reporting of SSS performance.
Looking Forward:
Phil leaves the Initiative at at time of great market activity and leaves in place a capable team to carry the SSSI forward. The SSSI Governing Board has appointed Paul Wassenberg of Marvell as the acting SSSI Chair. Paul has been the chair of the TechDev sub committee and allows for a seamless transition with Paul’s extensive interaction with Education, Busdev, and the SSS TWG. Paul and Marvell are also one of the founding companies of the SSSI and has been instrumental in getting the Initiative to where it is and will be key in moving us forward.
Come Join Us:
The SSSI continues to evangelize Solid State Storage and will have numerous opportunities to contribute to standardization of the SSS industry and widespread adoption and deployment of SSS mass storage.
Thank You Phil:
The entire SSSI wants to thank Phil for his dedication, leadership and vision and hopes to take the SSSI to the next level. In that vein, the Initiative actively seeks to expand its membership and to address topics of interest to the SSS community and the Initiative’s membership. People and companies that have an interest in participating in this exciting industry are invited to visit the SSSI at http://www.snia.org/forums/sssi