Nimbus Launches 240 TB-Capacity Flash Storage System
Nimbus Data Systems this week unveiled a solid state flash system for enterprises that can support capacities reaching nearly 250 terabytes within a single file system.
Nimbus S-class systems are targeted toward data center applications and high-performance computing (HPC), including virtualization, data mining, data warehousing, databases, medical imaging, scientific data analysis, and public and private cloud services. The new model, the S1000, supports almost 10 TB of solid state capacity per 2U shelf using 24 hot-swappable flash blades with a capacity of 400 GB each. (The system uses higher-capacity 34 nm enterprise multi-level cell, or eMLC, NAND flash memory.) Designed for energy efficiency and high data throughput, the S1000 offers 72 Gbps throughput, 0.3 ms IO response time, and up to 6,000 input/output operations per second (IOps) per watt, according to published specs. Total system capacity can reach about 240 TB (using 240,000 GB = 240 TB) with 600 flash blades. These are housed in the new, larger-capacity S-class systems, which now scale up to 25 shelves (four more than in previous-generation systems).
All of the new Nimbus S-class systems also now offer a FlexConnect option, which provides up to a dozen 10 Gbps Ethernet (10 GbE) ports with triple active-active 10 GbE network controllers. Using FlexConnect, all storage is available to all ports without the need to assign volumes to ports. The S-class can, when maxed out under FlexConnect, provide up to 120 Gbps of bandwidth. The units also include two standard gigabit Ethernet ports (RJ-45), one for management and one for WAN connectivity, as well as six 6 Gbps SAS expansion ports.
The devices run on the Nimbus HALO operating system and sport eight Intel Nehalem/Westmere cores with dual TCP/IP offload engines. Virtualization support includes Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtual Iron, and VMware ESX/ESXi solutions; operating system support includes Windows 7, Windows Server 2003/2008, Linux, IBM AIX, Netware, HP/UX, and Solaris.
The S1000 10 TB system is available now with HALO storage operating system license for $99,995. (Other configurations are available in 2.5 TB and 5 TB capacities starting at less than $25,000.) The copper or fiber optic FlexConnect option can be added for $9,995. Further information can be found here.