Western
Digital today announced new additions and enhancements to
its IntelliFlash data center systems portfolio, giving customers even
greater choice and flexibility to design modern hybrid-cloud
infrastructures that accelerate the speed of business and help extract
greater value from data. By doubling available performance and density,
combined with enhanced capabilities for data migration and hybrid-cloud
mobility, Western Digital's IntelliFlash family of NVMe-flash, all-flash and hybrid-flash arrays delivers
a superior overall value proposition for accelerating today's most
demanding workloads and mission-critical applications where low latency
and high data availability are paramount.
New IntelliFlash N-Series N5100 Removes the Barrier for Adoption of NVMe
The
introduction of the IntelliFlash N5100 provides a new entry-level NVMe
performance offering, ideally suited for customers looking for an
affordable solution to accelerate business applications with NVMe. The
N5100 complements the current N-series lineup of N5200 and N5800 models,
offering extreme performance for data-intensive applications that
require the lowest latency response times possible. The enhanced
IntelliFlash OS 3.10 creates a unified framework, so mixing and matching
IntelliFlash arrays for specific workloads is seamless.
Double the Performance
IntelliFlash
OS 3.10 is the culmination of the company's silicon-to-systems vertical
innovation efforts in flash management software designed to extract
maximum performance from NVMe flash. With OS 3.10, the N5800 pushes the
limits of NVMe by doubling its performance, delivering best-in-class
random performance amongst fully-featured mid-range all-flash arrays
with up to 1.7M IOPS and latency as low as 200µsec, resulting in
significant business productivity gains through workload consolidation.
"Today's
data-driven businesses demand that IT support a myriad of needs ranging
from virtualized environments through distributed operations to
real-time analytics. This is placing new levels of performance,
scalability, and efficiency demands on data center infrastructure," said
Scott Sinclair, senior analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG).
"For those looking to modernize their data centers and consolidate
workloads, the new IntelliFlash NVMe all-flash arrays should be a
serious consideration. We've had a first-hand look at the IntelliFlash
OS 3.10 and the NVMe N-series and are impressed with its extremely high
levels of performance, its low latency, and its robust feature set."
Double the Density
IntelliFlash OS 3.10 further improves storage economics with support for 15TB Ultrastar SSDs,
doubling the density on select IntelliFlash models. By adding 15TB NVMe
SSDs, the new IntelliFlash HD2160 doubles the density of the HD-series
2RU (rack unit) offering from 184TB raw to 368TB. IntelliFlash
NVMe-based N-series and SAS-based HD-series platforms benefit from
high-capacity scale-up options to deliver a substantial increase in
workload consolidation while reducing overall hardware footprint.
Customers can choose to scale up to 2.5PB of flash in a single array
with the high-density HD2160 SAS-based all-flash array, or combine an
N-series array with SAS-based expansion to achieve the right mix of
performance and economics to meet the demands of a wide range of
workloads. IntelliFlash systems start at 19TB raw capacity and can scale
to 2.5PB raw flash capacity in 14RU.
Seamless Live Dataset Migration
It
has never been easier for customers to adopt newer generations of
IntelliFlash and NVMe technology as they scale to meet capacity needs.
With the introduction of Live Dataset Migration, customers can
seamlessly move legacy IntelliFlash data pools to the latest
IntelliFlash arrays, or support other migration needs - whether
on-premises or in hybrid-cloud environments. No reconfiguration or
application recoding is required. Live Dataset Migration maintains high
productivity and business continuity by enabling LUN migration of
iSCSI/FC LUNS while the system is operating, so customers can quickly
take advantage of storage that better meets the changing needs of the
data.
Enhanced Hybrid-Cloud Data Mobility
IntelliFlash
OS 3.10 also enables simplified data mobility to the cloud with its
Amazon S3 cloud connector for seamless AWS connectivity, or to other
S3-enabled platforms like Western Digital's ActiveScale object storage system.
Customers can place snapshots in AWS for hybrid-cloud configurations to
protect data offsite and cost-effectively move cold or archive data off
primary storage without heavy lifting.
"We
have built upon our unique expertise in silicon all the way up to
systems to ensure our customers have unparalleled value and
performance-without compromise," said Phil Bullinger, senior vice
president and general manager of Western Digital's Data Center Systems
business unit. "IntelliFlash OS 3.10 is a powerful platform, making it
easier with the best economics for customers to upgrade legacy storage
infrastructure to NVMe-adding a new entry-level price point offering
with the IntelliFlash N5100, doubling available performance and density
on select models, adding expansion options for cost-effective
scalability, and providing even more data mobility across hybrid cloud
environments to accelerate mission-critical workloads."
Additional enhancements in IntelliFlash OS 3.10 include SMB3 optimization for Windows File Server 2016 deployment on Hyper-V, simplified VMware deployments and management of VMware vSphere datastores,
enriched administrative features such as Powershell Toolkit for
automating Windows storage, and the robust IntelliCare
predictive-analytics health monitoring service.