Flash Memory Summit Briefing: SavageIO’s Open Storage Platform
Software Defined Storage (SDS) has a problem, it still requires hardware. This hardware requirement is a problem because most of the storage systems that a customer would purchase to go with their SDS selection also comes with software. That storage hardware feature set and the SDS feature set are often identical (snapshots, replication, clones). What SDS needs, desperately, is a platform, a storage hardware solution focused on being the hardware to SDS’ services.
The Software Defined Data Center Still Needs Hardware
Despite all the benefits of the software defined data center (SDC), that software needs to run on hardware. In fact, SDC and SDS should lead to better hardware. A hardware vendor unencumbered with developing software should now be able to focus on delivering a hardware system that provides high performance, density and reliability all while being more affordable than full featured arrays from major vendors.
Introducing SavageIO’s Open Storage Platform
SavageIO’s SavageStor is a storage heavy appliance designed to be the engine of the storage infrastructure, driven by the SDS solution of your choice. The architecture of the SavageStor appliance is designed to deliver consistent performance across a variety of storage media ranging from solid state disk (SSD), PCIe SSD, and high-density disk. The architecture can achieve this constant performance thanks to a non-blocking SAS architecture that delivers 12 lanes of SAS traffic for 25GB of total throughput. SavageIO even custom designed the cabling within the appliance to make sure that bends in the cable do not impact performance.
The device can support 48 SSD or HDD drives, and those drives can be intermixed thanks to the dedicated lanes. As long as drive types are installed as groups of 4, each will get their own dedicated SAS path, allowing them to run at their full rated speed. The system also has six PCIe slots that can be used for network connectivity or PCIe SSDs. Finally, the system can run the SDS software right on the box. It has two Intel 12 core processors and 500GB of RAM.
StorageSwiss Take
Software Defined Storage (SDS) is maturing rapidly. The available solutions have a complete and robust feature suitable for any enterprise or mid-tier data center. The missing ingredient has been the storage hardware. SDS needs a platform that can not only host the software itself but also provide storage capacity in a high performing, highly reliable package. SavageIO is an excellent example of a company that is designing hardware to compliment instead of compete with SDS.
George Crump is the Chief Marketing Officer at VergeIO, the leader in Ultraconverged Infrastructure. Prior to VergeIO he was Chief Product Strategist at StorONE. Before assuming roles with innovative technology vendors, George spent almost 14 years as the founder and lead analyst at Storage Switzerland. In his spare time, he continues to write blogs on Storage Switzerland to educate IT professionals on all aspects of data center storage. He is the primary contributor to Storage Switzerland and is a heavily sought-after public speaker. With over 30 years of experience designing storage solutions for data centers across the US, he has seen the birth of such technologies as RAID, NAS, SAN, Virtualization, Cloud, and Enterprise Flash. Before founding Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest storage integrators, where he was in charge of technology testing, integration, and product selection.
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