Fujitsu Eternus DX200F All-Flash RAID

Fujitsu Limited announced the ETERNUS DX200F, an all-flash array that uses SSDs for storage, resulting in stability and high performance.

The new product is available in Japan from May 8, and will be followed by subsequent availability worldwide.

It offers latency of 0.5ms or less for I/O-intensive applications. This shortens batch-process times and delivers the fast and stable performance that today’s businesses require. (Shortens batch-process times: compared to the disk-only configuration of the ETERNUS DX200 S3, processing time can be reduced by as much as 75% for index searches in database environments.)

When combined with the automated QoS feature of the recently announced ETERNUS SF 16 storage-platform software, resources can be automatically allocated based on task priority for efficient operations management of the storage environment. (Storage platform software featuring ETERNUS SF Storage Cruiser 16 to provide versatile management features for configuration, troubleshooting, performance and correlation, ETERNUS SF AdvancedCopy Manager 16 for managing high-speed backup/restore and replication, and ETERNUS SF Express 16 for managing entry level disk storage systems.)

The ETERNUS DX200F and other new models in the ETERNUS series will be exhibited at Fujitsu Forum 2014, running May 15-16 at the Tokyo International Forum in Tokyo.

With the ongoing expansion of cloud computing, mobile, social networking, and big data, businesses are seeing an explosion in the variety and volume of data that they handle. The ability to accurately process this data and analyze it in real-time is becoming a necessity for business growth.

To help customers meet these needs, Fujitsu is offering the ETERNUS DX200F, an all-flash array of high-performance SSDs. In contrast to other kinds of disk drives, this enables high-speed data access combined with stability and extremely high processing performance.

Key Features of the ETERNUS DX200F

1. Removes system bottlenecks and makes infrastructure more efficient
With the combination of SSDs and the 12Gb SAS drive interface offering exceptional transfer capability, latency is as low as 0.5 ms, which is for I/O-intensive environments. The system architecture is optimized for high performance of business critical applications and infrastructures, such as databases and virtualized environments, which typically use block sizes of 8KB or more.

The ETERNUS DX200F shortens batch processing times and eliminates the problem of processing lags caused by high-frequency storage access in a virtual-server or virtual-desktop environment. It helps create new business opportunities by enabling companies to run real-time analytics for big data, or to handle web traffic during peak times much more smoothly.

Compared to the ETERNUS DX200F S3, which was designed to get the maximum performance from spinning disk drives, the deployment of an ETERNUS DX200F with the same capacity will result in energy savings of up to 90% and space savings of up to 50%. At the same time, it offers an increased level of performance without the need for specialized knowledge such as complicated and time consuming tuning to optimize IO/s and latency numbers.

2. Efficient Storage Operations
Using the remote copy feature of ETERNUS DX series disk storage systems, the ETERNUS DX200F can be backed up to an ETERNUS DX series unit that uses lower priced nearline disks. Furthermore, it comes with standard support for thin provisioning, enabling administrators to set a virtual available capacity regardless of the physical capacity of the SSDs. This makes it possible to add physical disks as storage needs increase without changing capacity settings, thereby increasing the utilization efficiency of storage resources and helping to optimize investments.

The ETERNUS DX200F also supports ETERNUS SF 16, enabling consolidated management of functions via a consistent interface – ranging from initial settings to management of configuration, performance and failure – even in mixed environments of ETERNUS DX200F and multiple generations of the ETERNUS DX series.

3. High Reliability Contributes to BC
The ETERNUS DX200F retains all the reliability technologies from the rest of the ETERNUS DX series. All major components are redundant, including the power supply and internal controller, to allow for continuous operations planned component swaps or even in the event of a failure.