Dell OneFS for Google Cloud for File in Cloud

By Joe CaraDonna, VP, CTO cloud, Dell Technologies, Inc.

File data has experienced rapid growth in the data center. In fact, it often accounts for nearly 50% of the on-prem data footprint for an organization ⁽¹⁾.

When it comes to the public cloud, adoption of file has been steady, but it is not as prevalent. This is a reflection of the state of the file services in the cloud today. As they become more mature and capable, more file-based workloads can be supported, and adoption will naturally accelerate.

This is why I introduce as part of the Dell Technologies Cloud family OneFS for Google Cloud, an integrated and managed native cloud file service that combines the power and scale of OneFS with the economics and simplicity of Google Cloud. OneFS is the battle-hardened OS of Dell EMC Isilon storage arrays, and the industry’s #1 scale-out NAS filesystem ⁽²⁾.

The OneFS file service offers multi-protocol file access for NFS, SMB, and HDFS workloads. Capacity scales up to 50PB in a single namespace, with performance that scales along with it at a rate of 97MB/s per TB. Enterprise data management features include snapshots, native replication, Active Directory support, and durability and availability.

Organizations can now run performance file workloads in the cloud to take advantage of Google Cloud’s elastic compute, GPU instances and analytics services – all without having to make any changes to their applications.

In addition, the OneFS file service is natively integrated with Google Cloud, making it simple and easy to use with predictable subscription-based pricing and guaranteed performance. Customers order it from the Google Cloud Marketplace, and once provisioned they can configure and manage their OneFS filesystems directly from the Google Cloud console. Customers receive a single monthly bill and support from Google while Dell experts manage the operations for you.

OneFS brings game-changing performance for file data in public cloud
Based on third party performance testing with the IOzone benchmark, OneFS delivered sustainable read throughput of 200GB/s and write throughput of 120GB/s.

To put that in perspective, ESG compared these results to another NAS vendor offering file services in Google Cloud, and OneFS delivered:

• up to 46x higher maximum read throughput ⁽³⁾

• up to 96x higher maximum write throughput ⁽³⁾

• up to 500x higher maximum file system capacity ⁽³⁾

• Let’s take a closer look at the benchmark configuration and results.

Iozone Benchmark configuration

ESG began testing with the goal of measuring maximum sequential read and write throughput, running the industry standard IOzone benchmark. A 512K block size was used emulate the data processing characteristics of large file workflows such as high-definition video post-production, seismic data analysis, IoT, and genomic processing. The benchmark ran on Google compute instances, each of which mounted a single 2PB file share over NFSv3, which was sized at a 2PB usable capacity.

The number of compute cores were scaled from 64 threads, doubling the thread count with each load step, up to 1,024 threads where peak sustainable load was achieved, as shown in figure 2. These I/O threads were hosted by 128 VMs at the peak, each having 8 CPUs (n1-standard-8 instances).

OneFS for Google Cloud performance scalability benchmark results

ESG validated that Dell Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud achieved a maximum read performance of 200GB/s and maximum write performance of 120GB/s vs. a 2PB storage volume ⁽¹⁾.

Note that this is a scale-out filesystem, with linear scaling, which means if you want to double these performance numbers, double the size of the filesystem. OneFS can deliver throughput up to 945GB/s. ESG performed their benchmark runs with a 2PB configuration, and OneFS for Google Cloud scales up to 50PB.

You can now run your high-performance computing file workloads in the cloud – with an enterprise grade, scalable file service that can go the distance. The new standard for file data in the public cloud has been set. Imagine what that can do for accelerating your business.

OneFS for Google Cloud is available. Customers in North America, Singapore and Sydney will be able to take advantage of OneFS for Google Cloud at launch, with additional global locations to be announced based on customer demand.

⁽¹⁾ Source: ESG, Performance Testing of Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud, May 2020
⁽²⁾ Source: IDC WW Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker, 2019 Q4. Ranking by 4Q2019 vendor revenue
⁽³⁾ Based on a May 2020 ESG Report commissioned by Dell EMC, Performance Testing of Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS for Google Cloud, estimate based on comparison of publicly available specs and performance benchmarking results for a competing vendor’s NAS solution and Dell Technologies Cloud OneFS both on Google Cloud. Actual results may vary. AD# G20000133