IT Infrastructure

Storage with minimum of latency

Share this post:

Networks and CPU’s (possibly accelerated by GPU’s) have gained a lot of speed the last couple  of years. Storage seems to be the bottleneck. But not anymore, because companies can have flash at their disposal. But there are two types of flash, so it is important to decide which one is needed.

First, the Solid State Disks (SSD). They are fast, but they behave like spinning disks. Latency still is counted in milliseconds. Applications and business models that need speed ask for more. For instance, a hospital where doctors want to have data as quickly as possible to make a diagnosis. Or credit card companies that want to check fraud while people use their cards.

If they go for full flash, they get storage with a minimum of latency. With Flash System you’re talking a minimum of 90 microseconds. IBM worked on this kind of technology already for 40 years and has many patents pending. Recently, while developing a new machine engineers discovered a solution that would take 10 microseconds. Too much, so the idea just vanished.

But speed is not all

Data reduction is another Flash-advantage through in-line deduplication and compression. Currently, there are three flavors for storage. First, the spinning disks. Secondly, the hybrid system with a mixture of spinning disks and SSD. And on top of the ‘speed pyramid’ Flash System. Built with a minimum of programming code to offer ultimate speed, based on MicroLatency modules. In some FlashSystem models we have a built-in patern removel, in-line deduplication and compression.

Furthermore FlashSystem offers cost reduction: on licenses (less use of CPU’s), on cooling (energy efficient), on floor space (less servers needed), and on power usage. Nowadays, there is a lot on the storage menu; make sure to pick the right solution, which most of the time will be a well proportioned mixture, depending of applications and business model.


Learn more how Flash can help your business >>>


 

FlashSystem Client Technical Specialist | IBM

More IT Infrastructure stories

Automate work and accelerate business growth

Many companies need help to navigate the rapid changes that define today’s business environment. To improve their responsiveness and flexibility, they are looking for new ways of conducting business, rethinking their processes, and investing in digital transformation projects to increase the robustness of their operations. They rely on business automation technologies to cut out repetitive […]

Continue reading

Sustainability and the technologies enabling the transition

Creating a sustainable future demands significant technological innovation to decarbonize society, restore biodiversity and ecosystem health, foster thriving oceans for sustenance and economic growth, remove atmospheric carbon, transition to sustainable agriculture, and advance eco-friendly cities that align with our vision for a better future. Generative AI has achieved much in recent years and now surpasses […]

Continue reading

Data-driven asset management with IBM Maximo Application Suite and Cloud Pak for Data

IBM has enhanced its Enterprise Asset Management platform, IBM Maximo Application Suite (MAS), with IBM Cloud Pak for Data: a supporting platform which provides a framework for combining a variety of data from different areas of an organization. How does IBM Cloud Pak for Data help organizations gain additional asset management insights from available data? […]

Continue reading