The new record-breaking performance results for a hyper-converged solution demonstrates the effectiveness of Parallel I/O technology in harnessing the untapped power of multi-core processors and disrupting the status quo of the storage industry.
The Results Speak for Themselves
Using the industry’s most recognized storage benchmark for driving enterprise database workloads – the Storage Performance Council‘s SPC-1 – the company took on the classic high-end external storage arrays with a fully redundant, dual-node FC Server SAN solution, running itsSANsymphony software-defined storage services Platform on a pair of off-the-shelf Intel-based servers.
“With our first SPC-1 Price-Performance record [1], we set out to prove what could be accomplished with Parallel I/O in a single server, combining the benchmark’s database workload and our storage stack in a single, atomic, hyper-converged system,” said Ziya Aral, chairman, DataCore. “Now just a few months later, we are showcasing our progress and the effectiveness of multi-node scaling.“
The new results put DataCore SANsymphony at number five on the SPC-1 Top Ten List for Performance[4], ranking only behind million-dollar mega-arrays including Huawei, Hitachi, HP XP7, and Kaminario, as well as DataCore’s own Parallel Server hyper-converged configuration. The total price for the DataCore hyper-converged high-availability solution was $115,142.76, including three years of support.
“We see the Server SAN architecture at the intersection of the hyperscale, convergence and flash trends. Storage intelligence has been moving back adjacent to compute, and Server SANs should be deployed as a best practice to enable low latency, high bandwidth and high availability in enterprise applications,” said David Floyer, Chief Technology Officer of Wikibon. “The move to Server SAN architectures (aka hyper-converged infrastructure) has simplified operations by creating repeatable rack level deployments. DataCore with Parallel I/O software is demonstrating why these powerful multicore rack servers are becoming the basis for driving new levels of system performance and price-performance, and is a foundation for next generation system architecture.”
Aral adds, “With these new benchmark results, we up-scaled the configuration to two nodes, connected by Fibre Channel fabric, and reconfigured it for full high-availability with mirrored everything (mass storage, cache and software). Our objective was not only to set the performance record for hyper-converged systems, but to establish the corners of our performance envelope for the purposes of sizing and configuring what is otherwise an extremely flexible Software-Defined Storage scheme.”
Unlike competitive solutions, DataCore’s mirroring comes standard with the capability to support local and stretched/metro clusters with automatic failover and failback protection across active-active synchronized copies of data located in geographically separate locations.
Size Matters: Compact Server SAN for Lowest Total Cost of Ownership
In terms of lowering the total cost of ownership, it is also important to look at environmental and space considerations. Competitive storage solutions take up multiple 42U racks and many square feet of floor space, whereas the DataCore configuration occupies a mere fraction (12U) of one rack.
Unlike traditional storage arrays, the DataCore nodes had the combined responsibility for running the database workloads and handling their I/O demands in the same servers – a much more challenging scenario. DataCore’s compact Server SAN solution collapses the infrastructure needed and significantly reduces the networking and administrative complexity and cost. It can also be non-disruptively upgraded at any time with more powerful servers and storage technology available in the open market.
SANsymphony software availability an benchmark report detailsDataCore’s latest software release has improved performance of SANsymphony and Hyper-converged Virtual SAN software solutions by up to 50%. The new software that was used as the basis for the SPC-1 benchmarking is available in June at no charge to current customers under support contracts.
The SPC-1 performance testing is designed to demonstrate a system’s performance capabilities for business-critical enterprise workloads typically found in database and transaction processing environments. The audited configuration that was tested and priced includes SANsymphony Parallel I/O software on two standard Intel-based servers.
