Micron SAS SSDs, solid state for the enterprise grows up

Subject: General Tech | February 27, 2013 - 01:11 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, enterprise ssd, SAS, micron, micron p410m

Micron has announced a new SSD, the P410 SSD which will use a Serial Attached SCSI interface, perfect for dropping into existing enterprise servers.  SATA is perfectly fine for SOHO users and enthusiasts but for large businesses with a need for extreme reliability, SAS has been the interface of choice.  Adoption of SSDs has been slowed in large businesses in part because it would require changing the existing architecture to SATA in order to incorporate SSDs into their systems.  With the new Micron drive that is no longer necessary, at 7mm it will support high density servers and with the 25nm MLC NAND it is expected to survive for five years of duty with 10 full drive fills every day.  Read more at DigiTimes.

"Micron Technology has announced another addition to its growing lineup of solid state drives (SSDs) targeted at data center appliances and enterprise storage platforms. The new Micron P410m SSD is a high-endurance, high reliability 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drive built to provide the performance necessary for mission-critical tier one storage applications that require uninterrupted, 24/7 data access."

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk

• AMD to sell a cut down version of Sony's Playstation 4 APU @ The Inquirer
• Google offers a single sign-on system, embraces 10 partners @ The Inquirer
• Benchmarking Ubuntu Linux On The Google Nexus 10 @ Phoronix
• Intel takes on all Hadoop disties to rule big data munching @ The Register
• Stuxnet worm dates back to 2005, Symantec reveals @ The Inquirer
• First Debian/Ubuntu Bootable ARM64 Images Released @ Slashdot

Toshiba MK4001GRZB 400GB SAS, take your SSD to work

Subject: Storage | March 26, 2012 - 02:26 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, Toshiba 400GB SAS SSD, SAS

The main concern for enterprises is reliability, perhaps the main reason that most companies have not immediately jumped onto SSD storage as their primary solution.  The cost is another barrier but for high volume database usage as well as disk intensive tasks like transforming video the speed advantage can pay for the initial investment in very little time, as long as the medium is reliable.  Where an SSD failure on your home machine is frustrating, it can cost a business a lot of money.  This is changing as we are starting to see more companies offering Enterprise class SSDs, usually SAS SSDs which can help ameliorate the possibility of downtime due to a failed drive.  The Toshiba MK4001GRZB 400GB SAS 6Gb/s Enterprise SLC SSD is one such drive and when the SSD Review had a chance to test this $7000 drive they jumped at the chance.  Check out the review to see its speed in action and keep in mind the stellar warranty which Toshiba offers, unlimited writes for the life of the 5-year warranty, when you are considering the drive for business use.

"Our SSD review today will be on the Toshiba MK4001GRZB 400GB SAS 6Gb/s Enterprise SLC SSD and will be the first to experience our new Enterprise Test Protocol. This SSD brings with it some of the best sustainable performance in the realm, and also has recently taken the Grand Prize for Excellence in Energy Efficiency and Conservation from the Japan Energy Conservation Center, so it is definitely a top candidate to initiate our new Enterprise Test Protocol."

Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:

Storage

• Patriot Pyro SE 240 GB Solid State Drive @ X-bit Labs
• OCZ Octane 512GB @ Legion Hardware
• OCZ Synapse Cache SSD Review @ HCW
• OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 - 240GB PCIe SSD @ Funky Kit
• Plextor M3 256GB SATA 6Gb/s @ SSD Review
• Crucial Adrenaline SSD Review: Solid State Cache for Your Hard Drive @ Techspot
• Crucial M4 Adrenaline 50GB Cache SSD @ SSD Review
• Kingston SSDNow V+200 120GB SSD Review @ Legit Reviews
• MyDigitalSSD 32GB Super Cache mSATA SSD @ SSD Review
• OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS 240GB SSD Review @ circuitREMIX
• SanDisk Extreme 120GB @ OC3D
• Plextor M3 128GB SSD Review @ HardwareLOOK
• OCZ Octane 512GB SSD Review @ Neoseeker
• SanDisk Extreme 240GB SATA 3 SSD @ SSD Review
• 24nm Flash SSD Faceoff - SanDisk Extreme Retake and Plextor M3 Pro @ Tweaktown
• Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB @ Kitguru
• Patriot Wildfire (SandForce SF-2281) 4x SSD RAID @ Tweaktown
• Plextor M3 Pro 128GB @ Tweaktown
• ADATA S107 Superior USB flash drive @ Guru 3D
• 10 Things to Consider Before Setting Up RAID @ TechwareLabs
• Icy Dock MB082SP EZ-FIT Pro Dual 2.5” to 3.5” Hard drive & SSD Bracket Review @ Hi Tech Legion
• Synology DiskStation DS112j NAS Review @ HardwareHeaven
• Icy Box IB-MP3011Plus Review @ HardwareLOOK
• QNAP TurboNAS TS-419P II 4-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix
• Synology DiskStation DS412+ 4-bay All-in-1 NAS Server for SMB Users Review @ Madshrimps
• Thecus N4200 Pro 4-Bay NAS Review @ eTeknix

Drobo Improves Storage with new App-Driven Delivery

Subject: Storage | August 24, 2011 - 10:03 AM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: drobo, SAS, BeyondRAID

SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 24, 2011 – Drobo, makers of award-winning data storage products for businesses and professionals, today introduced a new Drobo for business solution, the Drobo B1200i, which features technological breakthroughs and an unprecedented combination of automation, affordability and application awareness for the small and medium business (SMB) market.

The new 12-bay Drobo provides business customers with a unique storage solution for VMware, Microsoft Exchange and other business applications – offering advanced and sophisticated capabilities for customers without large enterprise budgets or deep storage expertise. The new Drobo takes an application-driven approach to storage, cutting cost and complexity while automating modern data protection, capacity planning and application performance.

The new Drobo B1200i builds on Drobo’s track record of providing “Small Box, Big Storage” by delivering a solution that is uniquely:

Automated

• Automated BeyondRAID™ technology optimizes advanced data protection without the need for specific storage expertise or configuration
• Automated thin provisioning and reclamation delivers enterprise-class expandability and storage utilization features in a simplified, automated manner
• New, automated data-aware tiering solves performance tuning issues that have traditionally taken storage administrators weeks or months to address

Application-Driven

• Adjusts in real-time to changes in application workload, without the need for user or admin intervention and tuning
• Uniquely utilizes SSD technology in the same pool as conventional disk drives to accelerate the most demanding operations – automatically, based on application workload Affordable
• Available at prices starting under $10,000 for 12 TB of SAS storage
• The most efficient and cost-effective way to utilize SSD technology – unlike traditional tiering or SSD solutions, Drobo allows customers to incrementally add SSD drives in the same box and in the same storage pool as traditional media – resulting in optimal price-performance
• Designed, like all Drobos, to be the easiest to use and most automated product in the market, resulting in reduced configuration and tuning time, and lower operating costs

• B1200i Overview: http://info.drobo.com/resources/b1200i
• The Automated Tiering Experience: http://www.drobo.com/resources/tiering.php
• Drobo for Business: http://www.drobo.com/products/drobosanbusiness.php

Availability
The new Drobo 12-Bay iSCSI SAN storage for business model B1200i is available now for purchase at http://www.Drobo.com and through select partners and resellers.