Kaminario Petabyte-Scale All-flash Storage Platform

Kaminario, Inc. announced the availability of its sixth generation (Gen6) K2 all-flash array, delivering multi-petabyte scale storage with the performance and agility to meet the needs of an on-demand world.

K2 Gen6 is powered by VisionOS, a software platform that optimizes commodity hardware resources. It is built for delivering applications on scalable private clouds or as-a-service infrastructures.

K2’s scale-up and scale-out architecture covers both dimensions of scale – capacity and performance. The array can linearly grow the number of CPU cores and independently grow solid-state capacity – breaking the limits of rigid architectures.

Advances in compression technology enable K2 Gen6 customers to realize industry capacity and efficiency backed by enhancements to the ForeSight Storage Assurance program – an investment protection program.

“This latest platform is another milestone for Kaminario and sets us on a path to rapidly expand our competitive edge in the market,” said Dani Golan, founder and CEO, Kaminario. “The combination of increasing performance and capacity efficiency, with the ability to seamlessly scale-out from previous generations of K2, give our customers the agility they need to compete in the modern, always-on world.“

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Product highlights:

K2 Gen6, petabyte-scale All-flash storage
It delivers multi-petabyte scalability within a shared data reduction space. It is comprised of modular K-Blocks that include an active-active controller pair and between one and four drive shelves that each accommodate 24 SSDs. Leveraging 4TB 3D TLC drives, a single Gen6 K-Block scales-up to 1PB of effective capacity, a 5x increase over a Gen5 K-Block. With a true scale-out design, volumes are accessed from all active-active controllers. Adopting Broadwell CPUs, the K2 Gen6 delivers a 2x performance increase over the previous generation. Company’s customers will be able to add Gen6 modules to existing Gen5 implementations non-disruptively.

1K-block configuration – 30TB to 1PB of effective capacity with 370,000 IO/s, 6.2GB/s of throughput and 0.35ms latency
2K-block configuration – 60TB to 2PB of effective capacity with 740,000 IO/s, 12.4GB/s of throughput and 0.35ms latency
3K-block configuration – 90TB to 3PB of effective capacity with 1.1 million IO/s, 6GB/s of throughput and 0.35ms latency
4K-block configuration – 120TB to 4PB of effective capacity with 1.5 million IO/s, 25GB/s of throughput and 0.35ms latency

Transforming all-flash Economics with data reduction
In addition to improvements in physical capacity and density, K2 Gen6 incorporates an implementation of standard compression algorithms that optimize use of hardware resources. The improvement in compression efficiency delivers more than 25% improvement in overall data reduction for most use cases – letting customers get more effective capacity from the array. The company passes this value on to customers with a guaranteed data reduction ratio of 4:1. If customers are not able to achieve 4:1 reduction during the life of the array, the firm provides additional capacity at no extra charge.

VisionOS: Software-defined all-flash architecture and data services framework
K2 Gen6 is powered by VisionOS, the company’s software-defined architecture and framework for delivering advanced data services. It represents over eight years of all-flash innovation, delivering capabilities that include ability to scale-up and scale-out, to deliver performance in complex workload environments, to optimize the use of hardware resources and to deliver capacity efficiency.

Tomorrow-ready storage framework accelerates adoption of new hardware innovation
The software-defined approach enables rapid adoption of the latest storage, networking and processor hardware. K2 Gen6 incorporates a tomorrow-ready framework that delivers a seamless path to adopting new hardware innovation as it becomes enterprise ready.

Tomorrow-ready features include:

FC Gen6 32Gb-ready: K2 Gen6 uses 16Gb FC Gen6 adapters that can be upgraded to 32Gb with a simple transceiver swap.
Storage Class Memory (SCM)-ready: K2 Gen6 controllers offer front-loading, hot-swappable PCIe and NVMe slots for SCM devices such as Intel Corp.’ 3D Xpoint.
NVDIMM-ready: VisionOS is built to leverage next-gen high performance storage class memory modules like NVDIMM that can sustain power failures without losing data.

Additionally, the company ensuries investment protection through a upgrade path for existing customers.

“Kaminario’s technology philosophy is to focus on software-defined innovation while working with leading technology providers to deliver the most capable all-flash array platform in the market,” said Doron Tal, chief architect, Kaminario. “With hardware technologies like NVMe and NVMe Fabrics rapidly emerging, we will be positioned to lead the industry, introducing enterprise-ready solutions and leveraging the most modern hardware technologies available.“

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“Kaminario’s scale-up and scale-out approach is designed to deliver the agility and scalability that modern on-demand infrastructures require,” said Ernie Satterthwait, CIO, Scentsy, Inc. “We count on Kaminario to support the consistently high user experience our customers expect.“

“Kaminario has been at the forefront of the all-flash industry for the past few years,” said Ashby Lincoln, president and CEO, VeriStor Systems, Inc. “Like us, they are innovation leaders and are always among the first to adopt the newest flash technology which is important in this fast-moving market. In addition, their flexible scalability model and business assurance programs give our mutual customers incredible predictability around performance and cost.“

“Kaminario K2 Gen6 promises to challenge the all-flash status quo with its significant upgrades to the signature, already-impressive Kaminario scale-up and scale-out architecture,” said Mark Peters, practice director and senior analyst, ESG. “Kaminario’s approach not only – and expectedly – delivers the stellar performance needed for modern applications, but also crucially – and less expectedly – adds the kind of scalability and agility that’s a prerequisite to support cloud-scale data centers.“

“We are thrilled that Kaminario has chosen to standardize on Emulex Gen6 FC HBAs (HBAs) by Broadcom for the sixth generation of the K2 all-flash array,” said Brian Reed, VP, Emulex’ connectivity division, Broadcom Ltd. “K2 Gen6 leverages the latest innovations in hardware design, including the multi-threaded, multi-core architecture of Emulex HBA’s that deliver best-in-class performance, enabling Kaminario’s customers to accelerate workloads by up to 3X compared to previous generations of HBAs.“

“Kaminario leverages Supermicro server technology to deliver maximum performance and efficiency in both scale-up and scale-out configurations,” said Don Clegg, VP, marketing and business development, Super Micro Computer, Inc. “This building block approach provides the required hardware pillars for the introduction of Gen6 performance, efficiency, reliability and future-ready innovations. Kaminario K2 all-flash array utilizes front-loading, hot-swappable PCIe and NVMe slots for SCM devices, NVMe SSDs and more. These features accelerate the storage’s metadata handling, offload tasks from the CPU, or any other innovation the future will bring.“

“Brocade and Kaminario are redefining storage performance with the K2 all-flash array, a Gen6-ready storage platform,” said Jack Rondoni, SVP, storage networking, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. “Data center modernization starts with Gen6 FC in order to adapt to ever-evolving storage requirements. Brocade Gen6 FC provides the enhanced reliability, breakthrough performance and business agility required for the all-flash data center.“