VIOLIN Insights

Like all storage, Flash must be formatted before it’s usable. The format of flash is built around maintaining consistent performance and resiliency. When an all-flash array fills up, it will reuse space to write new data. Erase operations happen in big blocks (megabytes) of space, while writes happen in small chunks (kilobytes). Flash requires you to erase before you can reclaim space to write. The process of reclaiming space by moving existing data to another block is known as garbage collection and when performed as a background activity has no impact on production activity. When it becomes a foreground operation, it significantly reduces production activity.

As an Oracle database guy working at Violin Systems in Europe, I get exposed to some truly big, scary database platforms. Sometimes they are important (like the global PeopleSoft database for a well-known world-wide intergovernmental organization), sometimes they are critical (like the billing platform for 26 million cell phone users in Europe) and sometimes... you just can't talk about them.

The business value of replication is time. What is a minute of online orders worth to your company? How about an hour? How about 2 days? Longer outages can be fatal to your company if data is not available. Your customers start looking elsewhere, and the damage may not be reversible. The American financial system did not collapse on 9/11 because critical data was replicated in nearby New Jersey.

Batteries in the data center are problematic. Traditional lead-acid batteries outgas hydrogen (an explosive gas), they can leak acid which can make a real mess of cables and equipment, and they take a lot of space in addition to being pretty heavy. In addition, there are issues with cells drying out, interconnect degradation and thermal runaway problems. Modern Li-Ion batteries are much better, they just occasionally burst into flames.

The Register asks: why would you put traditional enterprise workloads on All Flash Arrays (AFA)?

In this episode of the Architecture Matters Blog Series, I’ll be covering the rising importance of data management features for all-flash arrays.

In this episode of the Architecture Matters blog series, let's look at the economics of all-flash arrays and Violin’s strategy to make all-flash arrays as affordable as enterprise disk solutions.