Excelero expands options for all-flash storage in HA servers
Software-defined block storage firm Excelero has launched new software for creating NVMe All-Flash Arrays (NAFAs) that leverage traditional controller-based high availability (HA) storage architectures.
The Excelero NVEdge is designed for OEMs, large integrators, and tech companies that are building disaggregated NAFA solutions.
Specifically, NVEdge block storage software is targeted towards cloud data centers where a rack is a single failure domain, yet disaggregated NVMe single-chassis storage needed to be HA; and deployments requiring an HA NVMe storage array with local NVMe performance, but without the need for massive scale.
We're providing even wider options for our customers, and offering OEMs, integrators and tech giants a simplified path to delivering the most efficient disaggregated NVMe-based solutions on the market," says CEO and cofounder Lior Gal.
According to Excelero, NVEdge is capable of delivering NVMe AFA performance at more than 2.7M 4K IOPs on a 100Gb link, at full bandwidth and at thin provisioning at up to a 1000x over subscription rate.
The software also enables OEMs to build a scale-up NVMe flash array on their choice of HA hardware, using Excelero's software approach.
Excelero NVEdge replaces the need for proprietary block drivers with NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF), and it provides an elegant answer for settings demanding high availability as well as performance.
NVEdge is also fully standards-compliant NVMeoF target. It supports HA x86 systems as well as newer SmartNIC-based platforms such as Mellanox BlueField and Broadcom Stingray.
Based in part on SPDK for writing high performance, scalable, user-mode storage applications, NVEdge supports both RDMA and TCP/IP networking, and includes features for data protection, thin provisioning, and checksums.
"Excelero NVEdge enables x86 systems and those based around SmartNIC-based architectures to take maximum advantage of NVMe SSDs with demanding and fast-growing application categories such as AI, ML, GPU and Edge computing. It delivers Excelero's hallmark extreme IOPs performance, throughput and cost efficiency via the NVMeoF protocol supporting NVMeoF standards.
The company cites IDC figures that predict NVMe-based arrays using NVMe over Fabric host connections expected to drive more than 50% of all external primary storage revenue by 2021.
"The integration of the Excelero NVMeoF target solution and the BlueFieldSmartNIC SNAP feature enables customers to build their own disaggregated flash storage solution and benefit from the higher efficiency achieved by utilizing NVMe in a central server," comments Mellanox SVP SW architecture, Dror Goldenberg.
"They can enjoy exceptionally low latency and reach full bandwidth across a 100gbE network. We are extremely happy about the collaboration between the two teams and the innovation that we create together.
Excelero NVEdge is available to select partners immediately.
