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NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions
that accelerate business breakthroughs and achieve outstanding cost efficiency.
Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster
at www.netapp.com.
See also:-
NetApp
editorial mentions on STORAGEsearch.com,
NetApp's
Flash Cache page
- editor's comments:- March 2011 - Network
Appliance has been a me-too (late) follower rather than a leader in the
enterprise SSD market in recent years.
NetApp has never appeared in
the fastest SSD lists
nor in StorageSearch.com's 4 year running series the
top 10 SSD companies.
If you're looking at NetApp for SSDs you may also be interested in looking at
these articles for alternative suppliers:-
SSDs ASAPs
(Auto-tuning SSD Accelerated Pools of storage),
rackmount SSDs
and PCIe SSDs.
Despite
a late and slow start in solid state storage there's no doubt that NetApp is
a fount of knowledge when it comes to network storage architecture related to
rotating storage arrays. Something which may have helped was the company's 2003
acquisition of patents from the world's first NAS company
Auspex Systems - whose
Storage Architecture
Guide (published in 2000) remains a classic reference which has been read
by hundreds of thousands of our readers.
|
| NetApp
Milestones from
SSD Market
History |
In November 2008 - published details
of its thinking re SSDs.
NetApp's paper -
Flash Memory Technology
in Enterprise Storage (pdf) didn't actually say much beyond the fact
they're qualifying some products and will launch systems offerings which
include flash SSDs sometime in 2009.
In
February 2009 - Network
Appliance announced 2 strands in its solid state storage acceleration
strategy:-
Although NetApp's PAM is a
PCIe RAM card and not a
PCIe flash SSD - it's
just a short walk from one to the other - which is why I've mentioned it here.
I have little doubt the company has already been evaluating options in this
market space.
In June 2010 -
Network Appliance
disclosed that it had shipped more than a petabyte of flash SSD acceleration
storage since introducing the product 9 months earlier.
As the market
discovered from follow up
SSD petabyte
milestones this confirmed that NetApp was still a bit part player in the
emerging blockbuster SSD
market bubble. |
|
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| "...the SSD market has
gate-crashed the server party - and the SSD roadmaps are changing too fast
for the old style computer vendors to keep up." |
| ...... from -
the new
business case for SSD ASAPs | | |
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popular SSD articles
- SSD Myths
- "write endurance" - In theory the problems are now well
understood - but solving them presents a challenge for each new chip
generation - especially as MLC flash heads into 1X nanometers.
.
- the SSD
Buyers Guide - summarizes key SSD market developments in the past 2-3
months and has a top level directory of SSD content listed by market, form
factor, interface etc.
.
- the Top 20 SSD OEMs
- updated quarterly - who are going to be the most successful SSD companies in
the market? For over 4 years - this quarterly tracker has proved its power and
accuracy as a sensitive way to pick up new companies and also as a way of
predicting bumpy rides for those already in the market.
.
- SSD news - is our
classic SSD news page (updated daily since 1998) which gives you a news view
of the whole SSD market from chips to cabinets.
.
- the Fastest SSDs
- updated daily - this article lists the fastest SSD in each popular form
factor.
.
- PCIe SSDs
- lists oems who market PCIe SSDs, and news and market commentary. We've
reported on PCIe SSDs since the first products shipped in 2007.
.
- RAM v Flash
SSDs - which is Best? - I asked experts from 10 leading SSD companies to
write their views about the strengths and weaknesses of these 2 types of SSD
technologies. The article is updated from time to time - and you may be
surprised to learn that in some heavy duty server apps RAM SSDs are cheaper
to buy than flash - (as well as being faster).
.
- 2.5" SSDs
- this is the most crowded part of the SSD market - as you'll see by the vendor
listings. This directory page also includes extracts from 2.5" SSD news and
a list of related articles.
.
- are MLC SSDs
safe in Enterprise Apps? - this classic article discusses the important
differences between MLC and SLC - and how these related to SSD data integrity.
It's been updated many times - and includes new commentaries from
enterprise SSD companies. A new thread in 2011 has been factional wars
between different types of so called enterprise MLC SSDs.
.
- RAM SSDs - 20 or
so companies still market RAM based SSDs. This directory page tells you who
they are and explains why - as the market uses more flash SSDs - the need for
RAM SSDs is growing (instead of shrinking).
.
- SSD
market history (1976 to 2011) - I published the first edition of this
history article in 2004 - and have been adding to it every month since. For
people who are new to the market it provides a clue to how much things have
changed - and how fast (or how slowly).
.
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| How big was the
thinking in this SSD's design? |
Does size really does matter in SSD
design?
By that I mean how big was the mental map? - not how many
inches wide is the SSD.
The novel and the short story both have their
place in literature and the pages look exactly the same. But you know from
experience which works best in different situations and why.
When
it comes to SSDs - Big versus Small SSD architecture - is something which was
in the designer's mind. Even if they didn't think about it that way at the time.
|
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For designers, integrators,
end users and investors alike - understanding what follows from these simple
choices predicts a lot of important consequences. ...read the article | | | |
| . |
the Problem with
Write IOPS
the "play it again Sam" syndrome |
Editor:- Flash SSD "random
write IOPS" are now similar to "read IOPS" in many of the
fastest SSDs.
So
why are they such a poor predictor of application performance? And why are
users still buying
RAM SSDs which cost
9x more than SLC? - even when the IOPS specs look similar. This
article tells you why the specs got faster - but the applications didn't. |
 |
And why competing SSDs with
apparently identical benchmark results can perform completely differently.
...read the
article | | | |
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