CEO Reports – Next Generation Data Storage Solutions for Modern Enterprise Applications

SPECIAL REPORT

Data Storage Solutions for Modern Enterprise Applications Why 21st Century Businesses Run on Flash Technology SSD and Beyond Why Enterprise Data Storage is so Important The Rise of the All Flash Array The Future of SSDs

Published by Global Business Media

DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

SPECIAL REPORT

Data Storage Solutions for Modern Enterprise Applications Why 21st Century Businesses Run on Flash Technology

Contents

SSD and Beyond Why Enterprise Data Storage is so Important The Rise of the All Flash Array The Future of SSDs

Foreword 2 Tom Cropper, Editor

Why 21st Century Businesses 3 Run on Flash Technology Samsung Semiconductor Europe GmbH

Accelerating Enterprise Data Analytics with SSDs Published by Global Business Media

Published by Global Business Media

Unleashing Full SSD Performance with NVMe M.3: Increasing the Space Efficiency with a New Form Factor Accelerating Data Analytics with Key-Value SSD

Global Business Media Limited 62 The Street Ashtead Surrey KT21 1AT United Kingdom

Bridging the Gap between Memory and Storage

Switchboard: +44 (0)1737 850 939 Fax: +44 (0)1737 851 952 Email: info@globalbusinessmedia.org Website: www.globalbusinessmedia.org

SSD and Beyond

Publisher Kevin Bell

The Age of Big Data

Editor Tom Cropper

New Possibilities

Business Development Director Marie-Anne Brooks Senior Project Manager Steve Banks

Making your Data-Driven Business Work

Tom Cropper, Editor

Mobile Storage Rapid Evolution

Why Enterprise Data Storage is so Important Unstructured Data

Production Manager Paul Davies

Data Security

For further information visit: www.globalbusinessmedia.org

The Rise of the All Flash Array

Material in advertisements and promotional features may be considered to represent the views of the advertisers and promoters. The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily express the views of the Publishers or the Editor. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this publication, neither the Publishers nor the Editor are responsible for such opinions and views or for any inaccuracies in the articles.

Š 2018. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. Full details are available from the Publishers. All rights reserved.

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Jo Roth, Staff Writer

Advertising Executives Michael McCarthy Abigail Coombes

The opinions and views expressed in the editorial content in this publication are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent the views of any organisation with which they may be associated.

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The Value of Data

11

James Butler, Staff Writer

Increasing Focus Pros and Cons Moving Towards All-Flash

The Future of SSDs 13 Tom Cropper, Editor

A Legacy Problem Storage Class Media Complex Data

References 15

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Foreword

A

S 2018 creeps properly into gear, businesses

storage onto a whole new level. We’ll see how data

are looking ahead to the key factors which will

promises to rule the future of business.

determine their success or failure over the next 12

Meanwhile, we’ll step back and take a look at how

months. Of these, one of the most important will

the move to SSD unlocked value from the chaos of

be data and the way it is used.

data. Jo Roth will then look at why enterprise data

We live in an age of big data in which businesses

is becoming so important to businesses. The ability

have access to more information than ever before,

to capture and analyse unstructured data such as

but all the signs are that we’ve only hit the tip of the

emails, texts and videos will help businesses thrive

iceberg. The vast majority of data lies locked in so-

in the digital world.

called dark data, which has been difficult to capture until now.

However, as we move into this future, businesses will have to decide on how they configure their data

New technologies such as SSD drives have had a

systems. Do they go for the high performance of an

transformative effect on enterprise data management.

all-flash array or keep a little back and reduce their

But as the technology improves, the horizons of what

costs by holding on to HDD? James Butler will look

it can achieve are expanding rapidly. Our opening

at the evolution of all flash arrays and why he believes

article comes from Samsung – who have been at

they offer more value than ever.

the forefront of development. In 2017 they launched

Big data, then, is here to stay. It offers all sorts of

the latest step forward for the technology – Z-SSD

benefits to businesses so long as they develop the

which creates a level of performance and usability

mechanisms necessary to help them make the most

never seen before. They talk about how this, and other

of it.

innovations, will change the landscape.

Elsewhere in the article we’ll look more closely at Z-SSD and other developments which take data

Tom Cropper Editor

Tom Cropper has produced articles and reports on various aspects of global business over the past 15 years. He has also worked as a copywriter for some of the largest corporations in the world, including ING, KPMG and the World Wildlife Fund.

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Why 21st Century Businesses Run on Flash Technology Samsung Semiconductor Europe GmbH In a world where data is the new currency, computing has become memory and storage centric

But data is not just growing in size – the way we use data is also changing. Historically data has merely been collected for archival purposes, meaning that PM983: NVME SPEEDS AND 16TB CAPACITY IN A SLIM NEW FORM FACTOR

E

VERY SECOND we are creating enormous amounts of new data. The data visible to us, the photos and videos we take on our smartphones, are just a tip of an iceberg because most of the data is created by the billions of sensors that surround us all over the world.

According to a study performed by IDC, 20 zettabytes (ZB) of data was created in the world in 2017. To put 20ZB into perspective, it’s equal to 38 petabytes (PB) of data created every second, which will be growing to over 300PB per second in 2025.

But data is not just growing in size – the way we use data is also changing. Historically data has merely been collected for archival purposes, meaning that once it has been stored it would rarely, if ever, be accessed again.

Today those old archives of data are becoming more valuable than ever in machine and deep learning purposes as enterprises seek to better understand their customers and markets through the use of data.

The growth of data analytics is also driving a revolution in the storage industry. For decades the data in enterprise servers resided in hard disk drives (HDD) that are made out of spinning magnetic metal platters. Every year the amount of data that could be stored in an HDD would increase, but due to the physics of spinning platters the latency and performance remained largely the same. In other words, more data could be stored every year, but the speed of data analysis wouldn’t improve.

once it has been stored it would rarely, if ever, be accessed again

Accelerating Enterprise Data Analytics with SSDs Solid state drives (SSD) are made from NAND Flash memory, which is the same type of memory found inside smartphones. The solid state nature of NAND Flash enables much lower latency and higher performance than HDDs because SSDs are not limited by the rotating speed of the platters – literally only the speed of light is the limit as NAND Flash works by moving and trapping electrons within cells.

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

PM1725A: A POWERFUL WORKHORSE FOR HEAVY DUTY SERVERS

More data could be stored every year, but the speed of data analysis wouldn’t improve

SSDs have already become mainstream in latency critical applications by offering tremendous performance per dollar value. High performance HDDs, such as 15.000rpm drives, are already demising from the market due to the introduction of SSDs, and 10.000rpm drives will follow the suit soon after.

ICapacity centric tiers are still primarily using HDDs, but when considering total cost of ownership (TCO), SSDs can already offer better long-term value than HDDs thanks to higher reliability and lower energy consumption. We are still in the early stages of the revolution, but new innovations in SSD technology can enable the shift to happen much faster than most IT architects and managers currently think.

Unleashing Full SSD Performance with NVMe HDDs primarily use Serial ATA (SATA) and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interfaces as the links between the drives and the host system. To enable compatibility with existing systems, SSDs have also been using SATA and SAS interfaces, but the two were never designed for the high performance that SSDs offer. Hence SSDs have severely been limited by the interface, but in 2018 Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), a new interface designed from ground up for SSDs, will finally become mainstream and unleash the full potential of SSDs. NVMe is actually not an electrical interface like SATA and SAS are – it’s a software interface built on top of Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe), which is the high-speed interface available directly on the Central Processing Unit (CPU). While SATA and SAS drives require a separate drive controller, NVMe enables drives to connect directly to the CPU via PCIe, reducing the latency significantly.

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In addition to lower latency, NVMe is enabling much higher data transfer speeds. SATA interface has a bandwidth limit of 6Gbit/s, while SAS offers up to 12Gbit/s. As NVMe utilizes the PCIe interface, the available bandwidth scales with the number of PCIe lanes, with one PCIe 3.0 lane providing 8Gbit/s. The fastest SSDs, such as Samsung PM1725a, utilize up to eight PCIe 3.0 lanes for a total of 64Gbit/s – over 5x increase versus SAS and 10x versus SATA. NVMe has already become mainstream in PCs, but 2018 is the year when it finally makes a big entry into the enterprise market. The adoption of NVMe is being enabled by new Intel and AMD platforms, which feature an increased number of PCIe lanes that are critical for installing multiple NVMe SSDs inside one server. Secondly, the optimized BIOS and drivers allow NVMe SSDs to be managed more similarly to SATA and SAS drives, ensuring a transparent transition.

NGSFF: Increasing the Space Efficiency with a New Form Factor Much like the interfaces, the physical form factors of SSDs have followed the legacy of HDDs. The SSDs used in the enterprise today are primarily 2.5” to allow the same slot to be populated with an SSD or HDD, but again what was once designed for HDDs is not optimal for SSDs. The form factor revolution started in the PC industry driven by the race towards thinner and thinner laptop designs, which obviously couldn’t be achieved with traditional 2.5” drives. mSATA was first announced in 2009, and in 2012 the now-mainstream M.2 form factor was released.

Both mSATA and M.2 are card-like form factors rather than drives, enabling much thinner form factors by not requiring a case.

DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

PM1633A: PERFECT REPLACEMENT FOR 15K AND 10KRPM SAS HDDs

While some server designs adopted M.2, it never gained popularity in the enterprise market due to the lack of enterprise-centric features.

To address the enterprise market, Samsung has developed a new form factor dubbed NGSFF, which improves the M.2 concept by adding hot-plug and dual-port along with higher capacity support. Using the industry-leading 512Gbit 64-layer V-NAND technology, Samsung has been able to develop a very slim 16TB NVMe SSD. The Next Generation Standard Form Factor (NGSFF) supports up to 36 SSDs to be installed in 1U chassis, enabling IT architects to create petabyte-class storage solutions in a slim 2U form factor. Compared to 2.5” and 3.5” form factors, NGSFF can reduce the storage space

Follow the hundreds of

While some server

cloud and data center

designs adopted M.2,

industry leaders by

it never gained

accelerating your IT

popularity in the

architecture with Samsung SSDs – enabling tomorrow’s data

enterprise market due to the lack of enterprisecentric features

analytics today

SZ985: ULTRA-LOW LATENCY FOR BIG DATA ANALYTICS AND AI

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Whatever the industry, enterprises must invest in data analytics and utilization of data. The organizations that don’t will sooner than later become obsolete, whereas companies that succeed in data monetization will thrive for years to come

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requirements in a data center by over 30%.

To bring the NGSFF SSD to the market, Samsung has developed the “Mission Peak” reference design together with AIC, with other hardware vendors releasing their NGSFF solutions later in 2018.

for low latency. Compared to normal SSDs, Z-SSD offers up to 90% lower latency with submicrosecond latency planned in the future.

The best-in-class latency of Z-SSD creates an ideal solution for mission-critical data analytics where every nanosecond makes a difference.

Accelerating Data Analytics with Key-Value SSD

Making your DataDriven Business Work

Traditionally, SSDs and HDDs have functioned as block devices, meaning that the host would access a data block (usually 512 or 4096 bytes) by its address. Block-based data mapping works well for small and structured sets of data, but when dealing with large unstructured datasets the overhead from block mapping becomes a bottleneck.

To support the analytics of ever growing amounts of data, Samsung has developed key-value SSD (KV-SSD), which stores data as objects rather than blocks. In practice, for example, a photo is stored in KV-SSD as one object, which can then be accessed via its unique key value, whereas in block-based SSD or HDD the photo would be broken down into hundreds or thousands of blocks.

By reducing the data mapping workload of the host software, KV-SSD is able to improve database performance by over 10x compared to block-based SSDs. More importantly, KV-SSD frees up resources in the host to focus on what matters the most: the analysis of data.

Whatever the industry, enterprises must invest in data analytics and utilization of data. The organizations that don’t will sooner than later become obsolete, whereas companies that succeed in data monetization will thrive for years to come.

As a direct consequence, storage has become one of the most critical considerations for companies and manufacturers of the infrastructure that supports them, as virtually all businesses are working with rapidly increasing amounts of data. Cloud service providers, colocation as well as in-house data centers are in a perpetual rush to provide new capacity, in order to cope with the constant demand increase from the lines of business.

The real surprise is that storage device makers like Samsung have been able to leapfrog customer expectations with extremely small, amazingly fast, exceptionally dense and highly efficient solutions.

As the largest semiconductor and SSD company in the world, Samsung is uniquely positioned to provide industry-leading data storage and analytics solutions. Unlike any other manufacturer, Samsung develops and manufactures SSDs and all the key components in-house, enabling Samsung to innovate and bring new technologies to market faster than others.

All of these advances are dependent upon superb manufacturing capabilities and relentless pursuit of the best that technology has to offer, pushing the boundaries of what can be done faster than would be reasonably expected, and making your data-driven business work.

Follow the hundreds of cloud and data center industry leaders by accelerating your IT architecture with Samsung SSDs – enabling tomorrow’s data analytics today.

Bridging the Gap between Memory and Storage The traditional computer architecture has always consisted of high-cost, low-latency memory and low-cost, high-latency storage. When thinking of DRAM and HDD, it’s logical because one is a semiconductor offering nanosecondclass latency, whereas the other is a mechanical disk with milliseconds of latency. While SSDs have narrowed the gap by providing latency of tens of microseconds, there is still an order of magnitude between the latencies of SSD and DRAM. To bridge the latency gap, Samsung has developed Z-SSD, which is built on the foundation of proven V-NAND technology, but optimized

DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

SSD and Beyond Tom Cropper, Editor SSD technology revolutionised enterprise data storage, but to really fulfil its potential it has to evolve quickly.

A

SK ANY IT manager about their biggest challenge for 2018 and they’ll point to the vast quantities of data flooding into the business. The last few years have seen the amount of data that businesses collect, and the way they use it, change out of all recognition, and the impact might be transformative.

The Age of Big Data The scale of data businesses is collecting is quite staggering. Estimates suggest that in 2017 we produced more data than in the past 5,000 years combined1. Over 90% of the data ever produced came into being within the last few years2.

Technology has played a major part. The emergence of digital technologies such as social media and the internet of things have empowered even relatively small businesses to harvest enormous amounts of information about both themselves and their customers.

This is not quite as sudden a phenomenon as we might think. Businesses have been steadily accumulating more data year on year.

The internet of things – often promoted as a key driver for the 2020s – actually dates back to the 1990s. What has changed out of all recognition, is our ability to store it and analyse it. For that, we have to thank our mobile phones.

Mobile Storage For years, businesses have relied on conventional hard disk (HDD) to store their information. Data is written onto spinning metallic discs. This method suits a traditional approach to data storage in which information is held in archives never to be used again. Today’s businesses require data which is agile and accessible.

For these high-performance applications, HDD will not suffice.

The revolution came thanks to solid state flash technology. Made from NAND technology – originally used in mobile phones – it has a higher capacity, higher performance and lower latency than traditional hard drives. Using this, a business can store large amounts of information, access it whenever it wants and put it to use in ways which were never possible.

New Possibilities The migration of flash memory from consumer gadgets into industrial level applications has opened an entirely new market. According to a recent report, the sector will grow at more than 11% year on year between 2017 and 20213. Already the technology has expanded the horizons of what’s possible for enterprise data storage.

The new technology creates a data storage option which can handle much larger volumes of data while also offering low latency and high read/write speeds. Most conventional solid-state drives (SSDs) are around 25 times faster than HDD. However, as the technology develops, the speed differential is becoming even more pronounced.

That speed enables businesses to harness data which is mobile and has a limited lifespan.

For example, a business can draw up instant real-time financial reports which shows them the exact state of their business finances at that time.

That contrasts with traditional reporting methods which can take days and typically occur only once a quarter. Such a time delay provides data which is out of date. It makes it more difficult to see where the business is at any moment and it becomes harder to make effective decisions, spot problems or capitalise on business opportunities.

Solid state drives also benefit from their construction. Gone is the spinning disc of a hard drive to be replaced by a single solid element.

This has a number of advantages: •R educed latency: The increased speed comes from the solid, simpler design.

•M ore durable: There are fewer things to go wrong. It is more resistant to impact damage and will last longer.

•C ompact and data intense: SSDs can store more data in less space. Designs are more compact and businesses will need less physical space to store them.

•L ower power consumption: As well as being quieter, SSDs consume less power, which contributes to lower operating costs.

Competition is intense. Businesses are harnessing data to improve every aspect of their operation:

This technology creates opportunities and increases capacity, but there is also a perception that it will increase costs

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Today’s businesses require data which is agile and accessible.

For these highperformance applications, HDD will not suffice

it enables them to offer superior services to their competitors, it helps them streamline their operations and provides insights into business performance. Those which are making the transition are already realising the advantages, compelling others to investigate the technology simply to keep up.

Rapid Evolution It’s a rapidly-evolving environment and increasingly technology can struggle to keep up with the ambitions of businesses. As such, developers are moving into fresh generations of SSD storage technologies which overcome the limitations of existing flash storage and push speeds up even further. These are touted as offering the next great step in computing performance and empowering businesses to thrive in the digital environment.

Businesses will have to look at these options and decide on the best route forward for their organisations. Yes, this technology creates opportunities and increases capacity, but there is also a perception that it will increase costs.

Businesses will have to evaluate these costs and set them against the various benefits on offer.

It is an exciting environment, but the speed of development can create confusion, misconceptions and lead to mistakes. Each organisation will need to develop the right enterprise data storage for their requirements and optimise it for their budgets. For this, they will need to work closely with IT teams and technology developers to understand what is out there and the ways in which it can be best incorporated into their operations.

Competition is intense. Businesses are harnessing data to improve every aspect of their operation: it enables them to offer superior services to their competitors, it helps them streamline their operations and provides insights into business performance

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Why Enterprise Data Storage is so Important Jo Roth, Staff Writer Big data promises to change business for the better, but it creates a host of new challenges.

T

HE BUSINESS environment is changing rapidly and so too is the way in which it manages data. From a world in which data was static and only used occasionally, it has exploded in volume and changed in nature. Today, businesses are handling millions of gigabytes of data each day. By doing so they open up a host of new opportunities, but they also leave themselves exposed to risks. Managing these requires an entirely new approach.

Unstructured Data One of the biggest changes comes in the rise of unstructured data. This refers to files containing text, videos or images which can be difficult to capture effectively using conventional hard disk drives. Data might come in the form of an email, social media comment or transcript of a conversation with a call centre agent. It doesn’t fit neatly into a database under categories such as names or addresses but is freeform in nature. This data can be immensely valuable and reveal insights into the market, business performance and how consumers are using a product, but making use of it is challenging for a number of reasons.

•V olume: There is an enormous amount of this information and the quantity is growing. As we shift into the digital realm, businesses can harvest information from emails, social media, videos and much more. IDC estimates 90% of the digital universe is unstructured data4. For many businesses this will simply be more data than they can handle.

•Q uality: The quality of this information is unverified. Much of it will be useful, but much will be irrelevant. Businesses must work out how to search for it and to verify that the information it contains is accurate. We all put a lot of information on social media, but not all of it is true. There’s a long running joke that people have ‘Facebook lives’ which are more ideal than reality. Key pieces of information such as their marital status and employment

are often fictionalised. In total, around 5% of Facebook profiles are thought to be fake5. So, while this data may tell you a lot, it’s difficult to know if what it’s telling you is true.

•U sability: With so much unstructured data available, it is difficult to know how to extract that information and put it to use. It will need advanced search algorithms to determine if a piece of information is relevant and how it can be used.

The Value of Data Many businesses lack the infrastructure to manage unstructured data. Some may leave the situation as it is – true that data might have value, but the cost of overhauling data storage capabilities outweighs the benefits they hope they can gain – but that would be a mistake. First of all, big data isn’t going away. In fact, quite the reverse. It’s going to grow exponentially, and the information it contains can deliver immense value.

By storing and analysing emails for example, a business can create a comprehensive record of interactions with any client. When sales teams start a conversation, they can quickly view everything that has happened between the company and that client, allowing them to offer a more personalised service.

Analysing social media posts can create insights about how customers behave and what they want from a product or service. It can also help with product assessment. There is a saying that your mentions on Twitter are what is said about you when you’re not in the room. This feedback can show where a service is performing well and where it is failing to meet expectations.

Customer data can highlight opportunities for upselling, by comparing what they have purchased with others. This allows businesses to offer existing and potential clients a range of personally tailored products which unlock new revenue opportunities.

The second important reason to address data is that competitors are doing it. A company may decide to save money on data management

There is an enormous amount of this information and the quantity is growing. As we shift into the digital realm, businesses can harvest information from emails, social media, videos and much more

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Ensuring all this unstructured data is stored securely and available for analysis is a major challenge for businesses

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software, but if their competitors are already using it, they will be a step ahead of the game, improving their revenue, allowing them to offer a superior service and possibly a friendlier price-point.

Data Security The rise of big data sees a corresponding increase in focus on data security. One of the positive developments of the past 12 months has been the maturity of the cloud computing market.

Businesses are routinely sharing large quantities of data across multiple cloud platforms. Concerns about data security and privacy appear to have been outweighed by the performance gains businesses can extract. Even so, security is a major challenge.

The threat landscape is moving rapidly as cyber-criminals become more sophisticated and shift their attack vectors. As with any other criminal, cyber crooks target those individuals and organisations which have failed to keep their data as safe as it can be. Unfortunately, there are plenty to be found. Technology sees even small businesses processing high volumes of sensitive data. Not all of them are accustomed to using data in such quantities and their IT departments may not be as alive to the potential threat.

Regulators, also, are improving their vigilance.

2018 will see a collection of major new changes to the way in which regulators monitor data usage.

Under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II), for example, financial services companies will have to maintain a clear record of every piece of communication with clients relating to a trade6. This could involve telephone conversations, emails and even text messages.

Ensuring all this unstructured data is stored securely and available for analysis is a major challenge for businesses.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), meanwhile, comes into force later in the year. Its aim is to give customers greater say over how their data is used. They must be able to get access to the data they need and to have it removed if they wish it. The fines for non-compliance are also likely to rise considerably. Fines for a severe breach could be e20 million or 4% of turnover, whichever figure is higher7.

Both these regulations will require businesses to have ready access to all sorts of data about their customers to ensure compliance. They will need to have solid processes in place to reduce the risk of data loss, together with disaster recovery strategies in case something does go wrong.

Data’s importance to businesses is growing.

The insights it offers can be crucial for business performance but, at the same time, it exposes organisations to fresh risks. As data becomes less structured and more mobile, businesses must adopt new technologies to ensure it is handled correctly.

DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

The Rise of the All Flash Array James Butler, Staff Writer Enterprise data storage should be the top business priority for 2018 for businesses of all sizes.

S

OLID STATE drives have already played a role in helping businesses to unlock the hidden value from millions of gigabytes worth of data. However, concerns about their cost have seen businesses move towards hybrid systems which utilise both traditional hard drives along with SSD drives for higher performance applications. But is that the best way forward? All-flash arrays are becoming more popular. As the technology improves it widens the gap between old fashioned data storages technologies, while also becoming more affordable. More and more businesses are deciding all-flash arrays are the future.

Increasing Focus According to research from Interop ITX, data storage is one of the key issues for businesses as they move into 2018. More than half intend to increase their storage spending next year with 22% of businesses expecting that spend to increase by more than 10%. Just over 20% of respondents said they planned to purchase storage hardware with 19% saying they were going for networked security8.

The study also found that the move towards solid state storage solutions would continue to accelerate. 38% of respondent said they planned to purchase solid state drives in 2018.

Growth is fuelled by a technology which is simultaneously becoming more sophisticated as well as more affordable and accessible.

Pros and Cons That said, acceptance is far from uniform and you’ll get a different opinion on flash and all-flash arrays depending on which IT head you talk to.

Three decades since flash first emerged, the pros and cons are still the same. Proponents of SSD drives will point to the high speeds. Critics will highlight cost and capacity issues.

The arrival of SSDs onto the market forced data managers to adopt a new calculation into their decision-making processes. Suddenly the talk switched from the size of the data centre to

the cost per gigabyte. On that score, SSDs are undeniably more expensive.

However, the gap is closing. As the market becomes more competitive, the price is coming down. Storage capacities are now in the terabyte territories, and the speed differential is increasing with every new product. So, while the same old drawbacks remain, the calculation is becoming much more positive.

Because of this, some businesses have started to revisit their enterprise data strategies.

The common approach had been a hybrid data storage approach – one which used SSDs for high performance and urgent applications while still maintaining old fashioned HDD drives for long term archiving data. This strategy is about harnessing the benefits of flash when needed while still falling back onto HDD for applications where slower speed will not be an issue.

As costs, fall, though, many businesses will be switching towards all flash arrays. This is an approach which uses dedicated flash storage for all applications. A recent report from Gartner found that 20% of businesses would switch to dedicated flash storage by 20199.

New technologies such as deduplication, along with the larger capacity of HHDs bring the cost per gigabyte of storage close to HDDs while retaining all the benefits of SSDs. As a recent report also highlighted, the cost analysis is also more complicated. A report from IDC stated that all flash arrays were only more expensive on a raw price per gigabyte basis.

It states that flash “can be significantly more cost effective on a $/IOP basis. When solid-state storage is intelligently integrated into a system with storage optimization technologies, storage vendors lower the acquisition cost and total cost of ownership (TCO)10.”

However, the overall performance of a hybrid system will still be lower than an all-flash array

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Three decades since flash first emerged, the pros and cons are still the same. Proponents of SSD drives will point to the high speeds. Critics will highlight cost and capacity issues

than HDDs, many chose a half-way house which harnessed flash for high performance applications, but still used HDDs for slower requirements when data would be more static and accessed only occasionally.

However, the overall performance of a hybrid system will still be lower than an all-flash array.

Applications can also compete for flash tier storage which can reduce performance, and vendor support is lacking.

The question businesses will have to answer is whether the cost of an all flash array is falling fast enough to justify installing it over a more common hybrid system.

Whether the move to an all-flash array is right for a business or not will depend on its individual data needs. Those for whom data is static and rarely accessed may not need the higher performance on offer from an all flash array. On the other hand, those for whom, data needs are urgent and time sensitive will need the fast and effective functionality on offer from an all flash array.

As businesses become more connected and reliant on digital technologies, their needs are also becoming more advanced. Even those companies who might not previously have considered data management to be an important part of their business are seeing their requirements change rapidly. They are using multiple devices, communicating across multimedia platforms and interacting with clients and partners from around the world. They are using data from multiple sources to provide real-time insights into business performance and opportunities and analysing the current situation of the market.

All these developments mean that they are using high volumes of unstructured data for which traditional data storage technologies are simply not enough. The nature of the business world is changing the type of data they collect and the way in which they use it. Although there is no onesize fits all approach, the trend is moving rapidly from hybrid towards all flash arrays. As it does so, businesses are finding ways to unlock new potential from within their companies.

As businesses become more connected and reliant on digital technologies, their needs are also becoming more advanced

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

The Future of SSDs Tom Cropper, Editor As the world enters a rapid data-hungry future, businesses are turning their attention towards the next generation of SSDs.

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HE BUSINESS world is undergoing a period of enormous change and considerable challenges. Ten years on from the sub-prime crisis, the global economy is still enormously uncertain. Meanwhile, digital technology is transforming the way businesses work and, in particular, the way it uses data. Thanks to dramatic advances in storage and management solutions, data has become a top priority for businesses of all sizes. However, for all the advances made by SSD solutions, they have been unable to truly fulfil their potential thanks to their reliance on legacy data transfer mechanisms. But that is changing and it promises to be a major leap forward in computing technology.

A Legacy Problem SSDs offer an enormous step forward in data handling capacities compared to HDD, but for a long time they have faced a familiar obstacle: legacy storage busses. Existing Serial ATA and Serial Attached SCIS might have offered all the bandwidth hard drives needed but increasingly they are failing to cope with the much faster speeds of SSD. Performance could be boosted with the use of PCI Express (PCIe). This was the underlying transit method for graphics cards and could boost performance up to 4GBps. That was enough for most of the earlier SSD drives. It was simpler to introduce them by leveraging existing technologies, but because they were not specifically designed for SSDs their potential was always capped. Now, though, businesses are demanding much more from their data processors which puts pressure on developers to come up with a solution.

The result was Non-Volatile Memory (NVMe) a communications interface/protocol designed specifically for SSDs by a consortium of the leading vendors. It offers the significant leap forward the industry has been looking for and ushers in a world of incredibly fast computing speeds. Samsung, one of the leading developers, suggests speeds could be five times faster than SAS and ten times faster than SATA.

As with SSDs, this is a technology which originally made its name in the consumer market, but it now stands ready to offer enterpriselevel functionality. Already a few organisations have adopted NVMe for some of their higher performance operations – those with very high I/O requirements – but so far they remain a minority. This is a technology which is in the early stages.

Even so, awareness is growing, and IT departments are eagerly watching developments in this space. Until now there has been a lack of vendor support, but as that appears, key barriers to widespread enterprise adoption will be removed. Competition is fierce, sparking rapid development, with Samsung and other leading developers releasing a number of new iterations – each one offering faster speeds and lower latency.

The potential for growth is enormous. According to a recent report the NVMe market could be $57bn by 2020 with 60% of businesses likely to have it in place11. Within a short space of time, then, it can go from the peripheries to become a commonly accepted technology in much the same way as SSDs.

Storage Class Media

Competition is fierce, sparking rapid development, with Samsung and other leading developers releasing a number of new iterations – each one offering faster speeds and lower latency

Along with NVMe, advances in next generation storage media promise more profound leaps forward – particularly the rise of storage class media. In 2017 Samsung unveiled its new weapon in the storage wars – Z-SSD. This promises to do to conventional SSDs what they have already done to hard drives – by offering a storage medium which is much faster, albeit more expensive. Samsung says it offers a 90% improvement in latency over and above conventional SSDs. “Our new, highly advanced V-NAND technologies will offer smarter solutions for greater value by providing high data processing speeds, increased system scalability and ultra-low latency for today’s most demanding cloud-based applications,” said Gyoyoung Jin, Executive Vice President and Head of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics.

“We will continue to pioneer flash innovation WWW.CEOREPORTS.COM | 13

DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

SSDs offer an enormous step forward in data handling capacities compared to HDD, but for a long time they have faced a familiar obstacle: legacy storage busses

by leveraging our expertise in advanced 3DNAND memory technology to significantly enhance the way in which information-rich data is processed12.”

The technology takes enterprise storage into the realm of 1-terrabyte capacities. Samsung is working on a NGSFF SSD, which it says would dramatically improve storage capacity and IOPS. By using this option rather than M2, users can increase data storage four-fold.

Complex Data Technology, then, is evolving rapidly, but this is necessary because business’ data requirements are becoming equally more complex and demanding. The use of social media by businesses sees them storing data objects such as videos, photos or blocks of text. This is a much more complicated process.

SSDs currently turns these objects into fragments of specific data in blocks, which require a number of processors, adding complexity and latency to the process. A new piece of technology called ‘key value’ SSD allows the SSD to process that data without any additional steps.

The increasing complexity of data is empowering the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence. For the first time, the quantity of data exists to make AI algorithms and predictive analytics viable.

Companies can take all this information and plug it into advanced algorithms which can utilise the data to unearth insights and opportunities which might not previously have been visible.

For example, using AI trading algorithms, financial services professionals can spot movements which a human trader might have missed. At the same time, the sheer quantity of data makes AI a necessity. Vast quantities of unstructured data are difficult to analyse using conventional search parameters.

AI promises a more advanced option to enable operators to unlock this ‘dark’ data and put it to use for the business.

As we move into the future, there is a sense that this is a technology which is starting a journey.

It is still in development and is not universally understood. However, with each step forward the technology takes, it unlocks a world of new opportunities for businesses of all sizes.

“Our new, highly advanced V-NAND technologies will offer smarter solutions for greater value by providing high data processing speeds, increased system scalability and ultra-low latency for today’s most demanding cloud-based applications” Gyoyoung Jin, Executive Vice President and Head of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics 14 | WWW.CEOREPORTS.COM

DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

References: More data will be Created in 2017 than previous 5000 years:

1

https://appdevelopermagazine.com/4773/2016/12/23/more-data-will-be-created-in-2017-than-the-previous-5,000-years-of-humanity-/ 2

How Much Data Does the World Generate: http://www.iflscience.com/technology/how-much-data-does-the-world-generate-every-minute/

3

Flash Memory Market Grows: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-flash-memory-market-2017-2021-300502844.html

4

Extracting Value from Chaos: https://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/idc-extracting-value-from-chaos-ar.pdf

5

Facebook: 5-6% of Accounts are Fake: http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-5-6-of-accounts-are-fake/

6

MiFiDII: What is it? https://ind.pn/2DYDIuG

7

GDPR Penalties: https://www.gdpr.associates/data-breach-penalties/

8

Seven enterprise storage trends: https://www.networkcomputing.com/storage/7-enterprise-storage-trends-2018/1406298047

9

Gartner Report All Flash Storage:

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3063112/data-storage/all-flash-hybrid-or-converged-what-s-the-right-storage-solution-for-your-business.html 10

IDC: Benefits of Flash: http://idc.cycloneinteractive.net/hitachi-flash-technology-iview/benefits-of-flash.html

11

NVMe Market to Grow: https://www.storagenewsletter.com/2016/09/21/nvme-market-at-57-billion-by-2020-with-95-cagr-g2m-research/

12

Samsung Introduces New V Nand:

https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-introduces-far-reaching-v-nand-memory-solutions-tackle-data-processing-storage-challenges/

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DATA STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR MODERN ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Notes:

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