Collaboration Between ScaleFlux, ICC, and Croit: Ceph Storage Gets Simpler and Faster

A new collaboration between ScaleFlux, Inc., ICC (International Computer Concepts), and Croit brings simplicity, performance, and innovation to Ceph for NVMe-based storage in AI and HPC environments.

Ceph has long been valued for its scalability to EBs, open-source flexibility, and support for block, file, and object storage. But its complexity and lack of native storage acceleration have limited adoption – especially among teams building next-gen AI and HPC infrastructure. This partnership aims to solve that.

Together, the 3 companies have developed a turnkey Ceph storage appliance that removes operational complexity while enhancing performance.

The integrated solution includes:

• ScaleFlux’s CSD5000 NVMe SSDs, featuring built-in data compression engines that expand effective storage capacity by up to 4x. A capability that is managed using industry-standard NVMe Thin Provisioned Namespace (TPN) commands.

• Croit’s enhanced Ceph management platform, which now supports automated configuration and monitoring of thin-provisioned namespaces. Croit has incorporated these changes into their advanced Ceph management product for easy deployment with 24×7 support, and will submit these updates upstream to the Ceph community.

• ICC’s RAIO platform, a fully integrated and pre-configured Ceph storage appliance supporting up to 24 ScaleFlux CSD5000 SSDs, tailored to meet the demands of high-performance computing, AI, and enterprise workloads.

“Ceph has been a staple for scalable, flexible storage that won’t break the bank on cost, but barriers around usability and performance limited its appeal for modern workloads,” said Eric Pike, VP, business development, ScaleFlux. “With this collaboration, we’re expanding Ceph’s cost efficiency and performance all while enhancing ease-of-use for a broader range of users.“

“Our goal was to make Ceph more accessible while preparing it for the demanding workloads of today and tomorrow,” said Evan Miller, CEO, Croit North America Inc. “By integrating thin provisioning support into both the codebase and our management interface, we’ve made Ceph smarter and offloaded compression to the drives, and will make these improvements available to the Ceph community.“

“We’ve combined the best of storage technology, software, and integration into a plug-and-play appliance that makes enterprise Ceph adoption not just feasible, but desirable,” said Alexey Stoylar, CTO, ICC. “The RAIO system is built to deliver performance and simplicity, backed by ICC’s global support infrastructure.“