Pivot3 Deploying Hyper-Convergence on Dell’s PowerEdge FX2 Servers

Pivot3, Inc., in the development of hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), announced the availability of its Global Hyper-Converged Infrastructure software on Dell’s PowerEdge FX2 servers.

The platform delivers hyper-converged performance in a very dense form factor by combining the storage efficiency of Pivot3’s patented HCI technology with the physical density of Dell’s PowerEdge FX2 servers.

The combined platform leverages the storage efficiency made possible by Pivot3’s patented Scalar Erasure Coding, which eliminates wasteful replication as a data protection methodology, to make available up to 94% of raw flash storage capacity. The cross-cluster virtual SAN preserves performance for running customer workloads by using only 7% of compute power and yielding 320,000 IO/s per 2U enclosure.

With Pivot3 HCI layered upon Dell’s PowerEdge FX2 servers, customers get a hyper-converged system that features density similar to that of the standard 16-blade chassis, but with the granularity of rack-mount servers.

Flash drives deliver high IO/s performance but remain premium-priced and limited in number when deployed within very dense servers. This makes using a replication-based hyper-converged solution in a high density environment financially prohibitive because of the low useable storage capacity it yields and high resulting cost per terabyte stored when using flash drives.

“This is a completely new approach to data center infrastructure,” said Ron Nash, CEO, Pivot3. “With most bare metal infrastructure solutions, the data is protected by replication, which is nearly impossible to do for most applications on dense nodes since they have such limited storage. Adding our Scalar Erasure Coding technology is the unique element here that allows customers to effectively use a far higher%age of raw storage capacity.“

The platform based on Pivot3’s HCI software and Dell’s PowerEdge FX2 servers can be combined with Pivot3’s standard rack-mounted all-flash HCI nodes to achieve the optimal balance of performance, density and capacity to flexibly match the needs of any workload. Four PowerEdge FX2 enclosures with Pivot3 HCI software constitute a 4×4 Scalar Erasure Coding Protection Group that can be scaled-out linearly without limitations.

“Storage space is at a premium, and businesses are looking for inexpensive ways to maximize the amount of flash storage and IO/s available for workloads,” said Ron Pugh, executive director, GM, Dell OEM solutions. “Dell’s FX2 platform combined with Pivot3’s hyper-converged capabilities is an economically viable and secure solution that enables customers to maximize performance and meet significant workload demands.“