Solid State Storage

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Jump straight to an abstract:

• Solid State Storage - Key to Next Enterprise & Cloud Infrastructures Storage
• Leveraging Flash Memory in Enterprise Storage
• The Benefits of Solid State in Enterprise Storage Systems
• Understanding SSD Performance:  Using the SSS PTS to Evaluate and Compare SSD Performance
• Comparing the Three Homes for SSD in the Infrastructure
• SSD and Deduplication - the End of Spinning Disk

The Abstracts

Solid State Storage - Key to Next Enterprise & Cloud Infrastructures Storage
Anil Vasudeva
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Computer architects dream of storage devices for their applications/workloads which can provide very high IOPs at minimal cost (IOPS/$/GB) using infinite cheap storage and instant access (low latency)   Enterprise-Ready SSDs ©IMEX have started to fulfill that promise, segmented into SATA and PCIe based Hybrid Storage products. One factor for their quick adoption has been the advent of new controllers and firmware which have allowed them to transparently mitigate early issues related to reliability, endurance, data retention, performance, ease of management and integration using exiting storage interfaces. But the killer software tool for their success in the enterprise has been Automated Storage Tiering activated by monitoring workload I/O access signatures and behavior over time and smart non-disruptive migration of hot data to SSDs, resulting in over 475% improvement in IOPS and 80% improvement in response time at peak loads

Learning Objectives

• The presentation delineates the technology, storage characteristics (performance, cost, reliability and endurance etc.), applications that benefit the most from their usage, system implementation in enterprise storage systems, workloads optimization using automated smart-tiering by vertical industry needs and the economics of SSDs usage using real market data.
   
• The presentation will illustrate case studies in real life SANs showing how optimally selected hybrid storage of SSDs and HDDs can achieve 65% lower TCO, 475% higher IOPS and 165% lower footprint while achieving a whopping 800% in $/IOPs in SANs and other storage systems in different scenarios.

Leveraging Flash Memory in Enterprise Storage
Luanne Dauber
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Solid State storage promises to transform the capabilities and economics of the "performance" segment of enterprise storage, and a myriad of different vendor implementations of solid state have arrived on the scene. Early implementations simply replace some HDDs in enterprise arrays with SSDs, but is one-for-one replacement of disks really the most effective way to utilize SSDs? New approaches for accelerating array performance with Solid State have arrived, ranging from SSD caching, SSD tiering, and/or creating entire Volumes/LUNs from Solid State. This tutorial will compare the performance, reliability, endurance, and cost properties of different SSD approaches, illustrate the impact of SSD properties on typical enterprise I/O workloads, and give users a roadmap for how to think about Solid State influencing their future storage architecture.

Learning Objectives

• Understand fundamentals of how semiconductor based storage is different from rotating disk
• Understand different ways that flash is being applied to enterprise IT and the data center 

The Benefits of Solid State in Enterprise Storage Systems
David Dale
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Targeted primarily at an IT audience, this presentation - an update to a popular SNIA tutorial -  presents a brief overview of the component-level discontinuities presented by solid state technologies which are being integrated into Enterprise Storage Systems today.  It then considers the architectural implications of using these technologies, including benefits and price/performance.    It then goes on to describe where they fit into typical Enterprise Storage architectures today, with descriptions of specific use cases.    Finally the presentation speculates briefly on what the future will bring.

Learning Objectives

• Discontinuities presented by flash technology 
• Architectural model to understand how flash is being integrated into enterprise storage 
• Specific implementations of flash in various storage solutions, including use cases and benefits

Understanding SSD Performance Using the PTS Reports to Evaluate and Compare SSD Performance
Esther Spanjer, Easen Ho
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Understand the full performance characteristics of a solid state drive are not as trivial and straightforward as it seems. Unfortunately, reviewing the product specifications or running some standard benchmark test suites do not always paint a clear picture of what an SSD is capable of.     A variety of parameters can influence the performance behavior of a solid state drive: current and previous workloads, fragmentation, block size, read/write mix, and queue depth to name a few. This problem was recognized by the SNIA organization and its Technical Working Group has worked on defining a Performance Test Specification that allows for performance benchmarking that result in repeatable and consistent test results. Following this test specification will allow engineers to compare different SSD devices on a consistent basis, as well as making sure that they choose the right SSD for their workload.    This presentation will provide an overview of the SNIA SSD Performance Test Specification for both client and enterprise SSDs. It will explain the proposed test procedures for these 2 classes of SSDs and reporting methods.

Learning Objectives

• Learn which parameters influence the performance characteristic of a solid state drive. Test results will be shared to illustrate the influence of these parameters. 
• Understand of the SNIA Performance Test Specification for both client and enterprise SSDs. Topics that will be discussed include preconditioning, queue depth, idle tests, random vs. sequential test suites, etc." " 
• Provide a step-by-step guidance on how to set up a test benchmark that creates equal results among the various SSD devices. Both software and hardware setup will be discussed.  

Comparing the Three Homes for SSD in the Infrastructure
Erik de la lglesia
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Solid State Disk is becoming ubiquitous in data centers as organizations struggle to accelerate applications and close the gap between fast processors and high-latency storage. This tutorial will help attendees understand the three deployment models fro SSD: in the server (PCIe); various form factors in storage systems; and in the SAN itself.    This session will clearly describe each approach: provide guidance on deployment, architectural impact, installation and configuration, scaling, and ongoing management impact. While all SSD implementations can accelerate performance, some are inherently more scalable, less disruptive, or easier to manage. An organization’s data access patterns and level of concurrent access help determine which approach is best suited to a specific environment.     The goal is to equip attendees with the necessary understanding and vendor questions to help them choose the deployment model that best suits their needs and IT environment, and derive optimal value from their investment in SSD.

Learning Objectives

• This tutorial will help attendees understand the three deployment models fro SSD: in the server (PCIe); various form factors in storage systems; and in the SAN itself.
• Attendees will receive guidance on deployment, architectural impact, installation and configuration, scaling, and ongoing management impact, of the three approaches to SSD deployment. 
• The goal is to equip attendees with the necessary understanding and vendor questions to help them choose the deployment model that best suits their needs and IT environment, and derive optimal value from their investment in SSD. 

SSD and Deduplication - the End of Spinning Disk
Jered Floyd
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Solid State Disks (SSD) have become a “must have” storage technology.  SSD performance cannot be equaled by spinning disk. However, rapid adoption is hampered by higher costs and longevity concerns. Data deduplication is the “change agent” that closes the gap between SSDs and spinning disks. Data deduplication rates of 5-35x dramatically reduces SSD effective cost making that issue so close that it’s no longer significant. Deduplication’s added benefit is that it also reduces the amount of data ultimately written to SSDs, further enhancing SSD reliability and addressing the second concern about SSD adoption in the data center.

Application of deduplication technology will accelerate the adoption of SSD and with this technology, SSD providers can rapidly gain market share while the end user will gain performance.

Learning Objectives

• Attendees will gain a clear understanding of why deduplication technology is an integral component in any SSD strategy due to cost and longevity concerns. 
• Attendees will learn how deduplication can improve both SSD throughput and longevity through write elimination. 
• Attendees will understand why SSDs aren’t completely replacing hard disk drives at this time, but that there is a near-term solution that makes it much more viable --data deduplication.