X-IO TechnologiesAll Flash Arrays – Saviour of the storage world ?October 2013
Jim LitkePrincipal Systems EngineerX-IO
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
State of the Market
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Lots of Hype in the Marketplace
X-IO Technologies – Confidential 4
One Size does not fit all use cases
Increasing Performance
SATA
Hybrid Arrays
TraditionalRAID
All Flash Arrays
Incr
easin
g Ca
pacit
yGB/$
IOPS/$Performance
C
All HDD Arrays
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
What does the market think ?
http://whitepapers.theregister.co.uk/paper/view/2870/uk-xio-wp-allflashvshybridstorageresearch-130618-final.pdf
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Total 1001-3000 employees
More than 3000 employees
Financial services Manufacturing Retail, distribu-tion and transport
Other com-mercial sector
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
How clear are you about the benefits offered by flash-only arrays vs. traditional HDD arrays?
Market Clarity
Source: Vanson Bourne Market Survey for X-IO, 2013
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #1: HDD-based arrays are history – the future is all-flash
44%
29%
14%
12%
1%
Which of the following is the most ideal storage solution for your
business? Mix of hard disk & enterprise gradeflash with real-time tiering of data
All hard disk based, with SSD cache
All flash based, enterprise grade
All hard disk based
All flash based, consumer grade
Level of belief: LowReality: Myth – Users clearly favor a “right tool for the job” approach
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #2: All-flash is faster than hybrid storage
Level of belief: HighReality: Myth - Different media types provide varying benefits
• 76% believe all-flash is faster• Flash can lower latency for
random reads• Sequential writes is another
story• Must evaluate real-world
workloads rather than marketing benchmarks
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #3: All-flash always runs cooler and requires less power than hybrid storage
Level of belief: HighReality: Myth – Real life customer tests have proven this
• 75% believe this perception • Flash modules/SSD’s draw less
power as raw components• Storage arrays are not just raw
storage• CPU’s, cache memory, etc are
required
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #4: All-flash is more reliable than hybrid storage
Level of belief: MediumReality: Myth – Hybrid arrays can deliver true “zero touch” duty cycles of over 7 years
• 40% agree. Not majority, but significant• Due in large part to proliferation of SATA in
enterprise arrays• Cell failure on NAND silicon results in shorter
duty cycle• Proper vibration dampening and cooling, and
self-healing technology can result in failure rates as low as 0.1% per annum
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #5: All-flash costs the same as hybrid storage
Level of belief: LowReality: Myth – Customers should look at real-life workloads and 5 year TCO
• 60% do not expect price parity for several years to come
• High cost of all-flash cited as single biggest barrier to deployment
• Dedupe and compression claim to lower amount of raw storage
• Ironically, it’s usually low performance datasets that benefit most from dedupe/compression
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #6: Using consumer-grade flash is acceptable for most enterprises
Level of belief: LowReality: Myth – Customers clearly see the risk of such technologies
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Seven Deadly Myths
Myth #7: Most businesses need the performance all-flash offers
Level of belief: LowReality: Myth – For most orginizations, all flash arrays are complete overkill for their requirements
• 90% believe no actual need for promised performance
• Less than 10% of businesses peaked above 100,000 IOPS
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
28%
21%18%
12%
12%
8% 3%
What two things do you most look for when buying high-performance storage?
Reliability
Price
Speed
Operating costs
High availability
Support
Long warranty
Price / Peformance / RELIABILITY
Source: Vanson Bourne Market Survey for X-IO, 2013
X-IO Technologies – Confidential 15
Analysts finally taking note
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Achieving the Best of Both Worlds
Traditional Enterprise
HDD Storage
High Performance
Flash StorageStrengths
PriceProven Technology
Low Risk
WeaknessesLatency
Perceived ReliabilityDensity / Scale
StrengthsI/O Performance
Low LatencyLow Power*
WeaknessesFinite Lifetime
Mixed workload abilityCost
BalancedPerformance
CostReliability
Hard Drives for…Capacity
Sequential WorkloadsLongevity
Flash Drives for…Low Latency
Random WorkloadsFootprint
Real-Time
Hybrid Storage
• Only real-time Hybrid Storage available
• High Performance
• Low Power• True
Balance of Cost, Risk & Growth
• Unique 5 year inclusive warranty
Balancing Cost, Growth & Risk
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Consistent Performance
High Availability
Zero-Touch Reliability
Scale-Out Manageme
nt
Risk
Cost Growth
AcceleratedPerformance
IntelligentStorageElement
DeliveringHighest Performance in the Storage marketplace with HDDs
Hyper ISE
with CADP
DeliveringSSD
performance with low cost,
TCO and operational
simplicity
Performance where it’s needed
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
• The requirement High Performance Storage for a bespoke app – large sequential write
followed by random reads
• The competition Whiptail & Violin Memory
• The challenge Be “good enough” AND help the customer’s energy problems
• The result Performance the same Power usage 50% lower than Violin Five year CAPEX cost 33% of Violin price Additional concerns around Violin roadmap and serviceability
Proof from the field
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
The X-IO Effect
Large Housing Association
UK
Reduced virtualisation support calls by 80% with capex spend at less than 70% of incumbent storage vendor
Industrial ManufacturerGermany
Reduced SAP Transaction times by 90% with an investment of $100,000
Retail Banking ISVReduced “close of business” time from 4 hours to 40 minutes and changed storage footprint by 93%
Cloud Services ProviderUK
Increased I/O performance by 25x and improved VM deployment speed by 20x
Large Independent School District - US
Reduced virtual desktop login times by over 90%
X-IO Technologies – Confidential
Storage is all about Balance
Risk
Cost Growth
• Hard drives are far from dead Capacity where it’s needed – Don’t focus too much on IOps
• Flash is a tool, not a solution Activity based tiering can be dangerous – Use real time IO analysis
• The storage marketplace is changing Storage should provide performance and reliability – not whistles and bells
• Look at 5 year TCO, not just acquisition price Also balance $/GB and $/IOP – Not mutually exclusive