14 DAY TRIAL // A recent Techopsguys blog post implied that Xiotech might be meaning to very soon integrate solid state drives into the Emprise line. However, as a response, an unattributed Xiotech blog post emerged in order to clarify what it calls “misperceptions.”
Although not signed, the post makes reference to “my speaking at Flash Memory Summit back in July,” so it can be assumed that the post author is Jim MacDonald, Xiotech's new chief strategy officer. The post states clearly that the Emprise line won't be exchanging the ISE storage solution for the SSD any time soon, as the technology still hasn't reached a stage where it can match the reliability of hard drives.
“Xiotech can speak with context on this subject, because we became the first vendor to offer SSD in arrays when we first offered DRAM-based SSD in our Magnitude 3D 3000 system in July 2006. In fact, we looked at SLC (single-level cell) flash SSD shortly after that release, and found the technology wanting. It's certainly improved since then, but not quite to the point of full deployment with the same (or better) characteristics as found in the ISE,” the Xiotech post says.
The blog post adds that there are a number of shortcomings to the current SSD technology, and these elements make them less reliable and suited for enterprise use, thus, unsuited for inclusion in the Emprise line. The areas that still need refinement are the reliability over time, erase speeds, page- and block-level rebuilds (as wear-out thresholds are reached), and internal algorithms (predictive erase-ahead, efficient garbage collection and advanced wear-leveling). Lastly, the enterprise believes that solid state drives should be able to provide at least a five-year warranty under a continuous maximal write workload, similar to the Emprise HDDs.
Xiotech currently uses Intelligent Storage Elements (ISE), sealed canisters of Seagate drives that utilize RAID Allocation Grid System-based (RAGS) software. This “enables the Emprise 5000 to get 20-30% more IOPS per drive than normal – i.e. the same drive in an unintelligent bay.”
Xiotech enforces its choice to delay adoption of SSDs by revealing that testing “a large Emprise 7000 configuration” produced better results than 3PAR's T800 system mentioned in the piece on the Techopsguys blog. “Those results are not published yet, but we can say with certainty that the results are superior to the array mentioned in the blog (3PAR T800) in several terms: $/IOP, IOPS/disk and IOPS/controller node, amongst others.”
“To summarize, there has been no 'about-face' at all here at Xiotech with regard to our view of SSD. In fact, we have said and will say again that we are 'working on it' and will be ready with it when the technology itself is suitable for the Emprise 5000 and its world-class performance and reliability standard for data storage. It's certainly around the corner, but not quite here yet.”
According to the post, the predicted time frame for the inclusion of SSD solutions into the Emprise line is over the next two years, during which time the enterprise expects the technology to reach an appropriate level of reliability, at least on par with that of the ISE.