StoneFly Inc. the original innovator of the iSCSI protocol and a recognized leader in the data storage and backup and disaster recovery industry adds composable disaggregated architecture to their robust range of enterprise appliances.
What is the disaggregated architecture approach?
The disaggregated architecture, as opposed to integrated appliance architecture, dedicates hardware independent chassis for different components of an iSCSI SAN, converged or Hyperconverged Infrastructure.
Examples of said key components include Storage Controllers, HCI Controllers, RAID Controllers, RAID Arrays, EBODs or JBODs, etc.
What is StoneFly’s Composable Disaggregated Hardware Configuration?
With over 17 years of experience of delivering high availability storage and backup and disaster recovery appliances, StoneFly came up with an innovative approach for composable disaggregated architecture.
StoneFly’s disaggregated architecture, whether it’s for iSCSI SAN, Converged Storage (iSCSI SAN + NAS + Object) or Hyperconverged Storage, comprises of:
- Dual Storage Controllers or HCI Controllers for Hyperconverged Appliances (1U or 2U iSCSI Standard or optional Fibre Channel)
- RAID Array (12-bay to 36-bay Rackmount with Integrated Dual Active / Active RAID Controllers and Storage Drives)
RAID arrays come with redundant high efficiency hot-swappable power supplies and are capable of supporting 7200RPM, 10k and 15K SAS, 12Gbs SSDs, or combinations of both.
The dual 1U Storage Controllers (or HCI Controllers for HCI Infrastructures) are capable of supporting a maximum of 1776 storage drives with expansion units. While the dual 2U Storage Controllers or (HCI Controllers for HCI Infrastructures) are capable of supporting a maximum of 4440 storage drives with expansion units.
This makes the storage solutions capable of supporting petabytes of data, when fully populated.
Ease of Management via Software-Defined Storage Solution
While the composable disaggregated infrastructure is capable of storing petabytes of enterprise data, it does not pose a problem when it comes to data management. That’s because it’s managed via StoneFly’s patented* storage virtualization solution: StoneFusion™.
By leveraging the enterprise-grade storage management software, users can manage all their disaggregated storage nodes via a single centralized web GUI. The software also offers a range of data services that optimize data storage and facilitate monitoring, management, and control.
Examples of these data services include: delta-based snapshots, synchronous and asynchronous replication, thin provisioning, erasure coding, deduplication, volume encryption, among several others.
* Patent #: 7302500, 7555586, 7558885, 8069292 as certified by United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Major Benefit of StoneFly Composable Disaggregated Infrastructure
When asked about the major benefits of StoneFly’s composable disaggregated infrastructure, John Harris, the Technical Sales Director of StoneFly Inc. said:
“Scaling out just the performance part of an infrastructure has been a challenge with the traditional model of data center infrastructure. With the disaggregated architecture, users can scale the way they like. They can add more performance by adding more storage controllers, they can add storage capacities by adding expansion units, or they can add both by adding full appliance nodes. Disaggregated architecture makes life easier for IT administrators and data center owners”
Disaggregated Infrastructure Available for All StoneFly Storage & Backup Appliances
StoneFly is now offering the disaggregated infrastructure for their entire range of enterprise storage and backup and disaster recovery solutions, including:
- iSCSI SAN Appliances (Voyager DX and Voyager FC)
- Converged Storage (NAS + SAN + Object) Appliances (USO-HA™)
- Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI) (USS-HA™)
- Hyperconverged Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliances (DR365V™ & DR365™)
For more information on StoneFly disaggregated infrastructure, visit StoneFly website: www.stonefly.com or www.iscsi.com
About StoneFly
StoneFly, Inc., headquartered in California, delivers a robust product line of enterprise solutions that includes storage, hyperconverged, backup and disaster recovery solutions that can be deployed as either physical or virtual appliance for on-premises or cloud environments. Options include single node, disaggregated high-availability, dual node shared nothing or scale out configurations.
StoneFly is best known for its innovations in the creation of the iSCSI protocol and hyperconverged technologies.