Nimbus Data S1005M SSD Flash Storage Systems

100% Flash. 5000% Speed

Nimbus S-Class flash storage systems leverage the exceptional IO and throughput performance of NAND flash memory to deliver significantly higher performance than conventional spinning disk arrays. Instead of relying on tiering, caching, or short-stroking techniques that increase operational complexity, cost, and power consumption without substantially improving performance, the S-Class replaces the root of the storage performance problem – the hard drive – with flash.

Total SAN & NAS Software

Nimbus S-Class flash systems include comprehensive software for end-to-end storage management and data protection, without any individual license fees or complex appliances and third-party code. Developed over 5 years and in production at more than 200 sites today, Nimbus' HALO storage operating system provides full multi-protocol capabilities, including iSCSI and Fibre Channel SAN, NFS and CIFS for NAS, and even native Infiniband SRP protocol support. Data protection features include snapshots, remote replication, and synchronous mirroring with high availability clustering. Inline deduplication and thin provisioning maximize usable storage, while an intuitive web interface and scriptable CLI make administration a breeze.

80% Lower Datacenter Costs

By eliminating power hungry hard drives and leveraging purpose-built hardware, the Nimbus S-Class consumes as few as 14 watts per usable TB. Furthermore, S-Class systems generate much less heat and operate safely at higher ambient temperatures than conventional disk arrays, reducing cooling requirements and enabling the next generation of power-efficient green and pod-style datacenters. S-Class systems pack up to 5 TB of solid state capacity per rack unit, enabling more storage in less space than traditional disk arrays. Organizations can reclaim datacenter space to deliver significantly greater IOps per floor tile.

Superior Availability

Nimbus S-Class systems consist of 24 enterprise flash modules designed and manufactured by Nimbus. Every module utilizes sixteen enterprise-grade NAND silicons and a dedicated flash management ASIC to evenly distribute IO and perform real-time error correction. Combined with our unique flash-optimized file system, Nimbus S-Class systems provide an expected duty cycle of 7 to 10 years with a 2 million hour MTBF (mean time between failures), a 50% improvement over conventional arrays. RAID protection, ample reserve flash capacity, redundant IO modules, dual processors, redundant power supplies and fans, and dual operating system images further augment the S-Class' rock-solid reliability.

Purpose Build for Flash

Certainly one of the top benefits of an all-flash storage system is exceptional performance. However, not all flash storage systems are created equally. With the NAND silicon capable of over 100x faster response time than hard drives, it is vital to engineer the storage system specifically for flash to capitalize on these gains. Simply retrofitting SSD’s into an existing storage array is no different than strapping a jet engine to the back of economy sedan: do not expect proper performance nor efficiency.

Distributed Flash Processors

Performance starts at the NAND silicon itself. Each Nimbus Enterprise Flash Module (24 per Nimbus solid state storage enclosure) features up to 32 NAND chips managed by a dedicated flash processor. This flash processor fully offloads all flash management from the system processors. Flash management is a very specialized function, involving millions of ECC calculations, garbage collection, read disturb management, and much more, so offload is critical to avoid distracting system CPU resources.

Protected Distributed Cache

In addition to managing flash, each flash module also has non-volatile write cache. This write cache helps accelerate performance in write-intensive applications by considering IO’s committed once they arrive in the write cache, rather than when they are committed to the NAND silicon itself. Since flash programming takes longer than DRAM programming, this approach improves performance without having to rely on centralized NVRAM and associated cache coherency architectures. The cache within the flash module is kept secure using capacitors in the flash module itself, so no external battery backup is needed to preserve data integrity. Cache destaging is transparently managed by the flash module independent of the Nimbus system itself.

Native 6Gbps Interfaces

Each of the 24 flash modules per Nimbus solid state storage enclosure connects via a native 6 Gbps interface. The 6 Gbps speed enables the flash module to achieve its full native performance without any bottlenecks. The interface also supports hot-addition and hot-removal of flash modules without any system interruption, facilitating online expansion and in-production servicing.

Non-Blocking Architecture

Since flash is so fast, just a few flash modules would saturate a conventional storage system that relies heavily on oversubscription. With the S-Class and E-Class, back-end bandwidth (from the storage system processors to the flash modules) and front-end bandwidth (from the storage system processors to the network IO modules) are perfectly aligned. This non-blocking architecture provides 152 Gbps of bandwidth, which is 6 - 12 x more than conventional disk arrays. As a result, Nimbus systems harness the full performance potential of flash to deliver exceptional throughput with minimal latency.

28.8GHz of Horsepower

Nimbus S-Class and E-Class systems are powered by the latest Intel multi-core processors, delivering up to 800,000 IOps (@ 4 K) and 8 GBps (@ 256 K). In fact, the CPU’s are only modestly utilized even when delivering this performance. This is to ensure that there are ample CPU resources for software services provided by the HALO software, such as deduplication, thin provisioning, and much more. In conventional disk arrays, CPU’s burn a lot of cycles needlessly in “IO waits”, a vicious cycle whereby CPUs “wait” for data from hard drives before being able to move to the next operation. Unfortunately, IO waits tie down the CPUs from doing other things, reducing overall performance. Thanks to the Nimbus’ 100% flash architecture, IO waits are minimized, lowering CPU utilization, reducing power, and streamlining operations.

Ultra-Fast Networking

Nimbus S-Class and E-Class systems provide a multitude of connectivity options via four IO modules, each supporting up to 40 Gbps of bandwidth. The datapath remains 100% free of oversubscription. Customers have their choice of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, QDR 40Gbps Infiniband, and Gigabit Ethernet. Depending on your network environment, simply select the proper IO modules for you. Nimbus systems fully support multipathing IO across all ports in parallel, enabling up to sixteen 10 GbE or Gigabit Ethernet ports, eight QDR Infiniband ports, or eight 8 Gbps Fibre Channel ports, or any mixture of them.