Nimbus Data E-Class Flash Memory – Big On Storage, Small On Power

Nimbus Data Systems, which claims its storage systems are ostensibly intelligent enough to think for themselves, has launched what it says is the industry’s first fully redundant, multiprotocol solid-state storage array.

The new E-Class Flash Memory System, loaded exclusively with enterprise-grade NAND flash, features complete redundancy and no single point of failure, Nimbus founder and CEO Tom Isakovich told eWEEK.

A feat of engineering

“This is the most scalable and highest-density solid-state storage system yet engineered,” Isakovich said. “It has more than three times the density of standard 15K RPM [hard] disk arrays.”

An E-Class system supports up to 500TB of capacity in one logical pool while consuming as little as five watts of electricity per terabyte, Isakovich said.

Since it has no single point of failure, Nimbus’ E-Class is ticketed for high-intensity applications such as enterprise-wide server virtualisation, Web infrastructure, database clusters, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and high-performance computing.

The E-Class platform consists of a pair of redundant controllers and up to 24 solid-state storage enclosures, Isakovich said. Each controller can support up to four active-active I/O modules, including the connectivity choices of 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel or InfiniBand.

The Nimbus Halo storage operating system is a unified SAN and NAS software stack currently in operation at about 200 customer installations. It automatically detects controller and path failures to provide no disruptive failover, Isakovich said. The system supports online software updates and online capacity expansion.

Using RAID protection and hot-swappable NAND flash, power and cooling modules, components can be replaced without needing to take the system down.

The Nimbus E-Class is available now, with a 10TB dual-controller configuration priced at £95,205. The full version of Halo storage operating system is included in the price.