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Choosing the Right Media for Your Virtual Machines: Storage Flexibility in Hyper-converged Infrastructure
When it comes to building a hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), flexibility in storage media is a key factor in ensuring that virtual machines (VMs) are running optimally. One of the missing capabilities of many HCI solutions is an ability to support various types of media, including TLC flash, QLC flash, and even traditional hard disk drives (HDDs).

Without this versatility organizations cannot match workloads to the most suitable storage media based on performance, capacity, and cost considerations. As a result, they overspend on storage. In a recent test, StorageReview evaluated VergeIO, an HCI platform with the ability to support diverse types of storage media can bring new flexibility those considering HCI.

Different Types of Storage Media in HCI

  • TLC (Triple-Level Cell) Flash: TLC flash is known for offering a balance between performance, endurance, and cost. It is used for VMs that require higher performance, like transactional databases or real-time analytics. Its ability to store more data in each memory cell compared to SLC and MLC makes it a cost-effective choice for performance-intensive applications. Legacy HCI solutions are limited to requiring and exclusively supporting NVMe TLC flash.
  • QLC (Quad-Level Cell) Flash: QLC flash provides higher storage density at a lower cost, making it ideal for workloads that demand large capacity but not the highest performance. Read-heavy applications, large-scale data repositories, and general file storage are well-suited for QLC media, where cost savings can outweigh the need for top-tier write performance.
  • HDDs: While flash storage has become dominant in modern data centers, traditional hard disk drives have a place in hyper-converged infrastructures for workloads that are not performance-sensitive but require large amounts of inexpensive storage. Backup storage, long-term archives, and low-priority virtual machines can take advantage of the capacity and low cost of HDDs.

Matching Workloads to the Right Storage Media

One of the benefits of an HCI solution that supports multiple media types is the ability to place VMs on the storage medium that best meets their needs. By manually assigning VMs to the right media-whether it's the speed of TLC flash or the capacity of QLC flash or HDDs-organizations can improve both performance and cost efficiency.

  • High-performance applications, such as databases or transactional systems, may be placed on TLC flash, ensuring the required speed for critical operations.
  • Archival or large-capacity workloads, like file storage or backups, might find a home on QLC flash or HDDs, where the lower cost per terabyte is more beneficial than ultra-fast performance.
  • Balanced workloads, where both capacity and speed are important but not extreme, may be assigned to a mix of TLC and QLC flash to use the strengths of both technologies.

By offering this level of flexibility, a single HCI instance can be tailored to each workloads unique storage requirements. This capability allows businesses to make more informed decisions about infrastructure spending, balancing the need for speed with budgetary constraints.

Flexibility in Action: Insights from the StorageReview Test

In their recent evaluation StorageReview explored the performance of an HCI platform capable of supporting TLC flash, QLC flash, and HDDs, allowing virtual machines to be placed on the most appropriate media based on their performance and capacity requirements.

The test revealed how using a mix of storage media can lead to significant improvements in both performance and cost efficiency. For example, TLC flash was used to handle high I/O workloads, delivering the speed necessary for demanding applications. On the other hand, QLC flash was deployed for read-heavy and capacity-driven workloads, showing how lower-cost flash solutions can handle large amounts of data without compromising the infrastructure.

The Value of Multi-Media Flexibility in HCI

For many organizations, the ability to incorporate distinct types of media-TLC flash, QLC flash, and HDDs-into a single hyper-converged infrastructure is critical in this era of flat to slow-growing IT budgets. This flexibility means that data centers can:

  • Optimize costs by placing capacity-hungry but low-priority virtual machines on lower-cost media like QLC flash or HDDs.
  • Ensure high performance for critical applications by assigning them to faster storage media like TLC flash.
  • Adapt to changing needs by moving workloads on the appropriate storage tier based on changes to performance and capacity requirements.

The flexibility to use different types of media in an HCI solution allows organizations to balance their need for performance with cost management, ensuring that each workload gets the resources it requires without over-provisioning.

Conclusion: A Tailored Approach to Hyper-converged Storage

The StorageReview test highlights the importance of having the ability to choose the most appropriate storage media within a hyper-converged infrastructure. By offering support for TLC flash, QLC flash, and HDDs, modern HCI solutions allow businesses to optimize their infrastructure based on the specific needs of their workloads. While this approach requires oversight to ensure the right media is used for the right workload, the resulting flexibility and cost efficiency make it an attractive choice for businesses seeking to maximize their infrastructure investment.

As your organization plans its next steps in virtualization and data center architecture, do not rule HCI out. Instead look for an HCI platform with media flexibility that can help your long-term performance and cost goals.

StorageReview and VergeIO will be conducting a live webinar demonstrating these results on the same hardware used in their evaluation. You can register for the event here: Register for the Webinar.

Published Monday, October 21, 2024 7:36 AM by David Marshall
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