Nimbus Data Systems relaunched the company this week and introduced an all-SSD storage array.
Storage smackdown: Hard drives vs. SSDs
The Nimbus S-class storage system is intended for organizations that are virtualized or run compute-intensive applications or transaction-intensive databases. It supports iSCSI, NFS and CIFs, as well as providing 10 Gigabit Ethernet and 1G Ethernet connectivity.
The S-class calls on Nimbus Data's HALO operating system which offers replication, snapshot technology and inline data deduplication for primary storage. The appliance scales from 2.5TB to 100TB of solid state NAND flash storage and uses Micron's enterprise MLC flash technology with 28% overprovisioning.
By using NAND flash, the S-class consumes as much as 95% less power than traditional disk-based storage arrays.
According to CEO and founder Tom Isakovich's claims, the S-class delivers as many as 1.35 million IOPs and 41Gbps of throughput.
Each blade in the appliance consists of 6GB Serial Attached SCSI. The appliance uses two quad-core Nehalem processors and employs TCP/IP offload technology.
Nimbus' S-class builds on the company's experience with a 1U iSCSI appliance, which Nimbus will end-of-life. Isakovich claims that the company has several customers for the S-class including the Department of Defense.
A 2.5TB appliance including replication, snapshot and deduplication software starts at $24,995; a 5TB model is $39,995.
Analysts including Storage Strategies NOW said that Nimbus will have to deliver on its performance and customer claims.
"Nimbus challenges our certainty that we fully know what is reasonable and possible in the storage business," says Mark Peters, analyst with the Enterprise Strategy Group. "The company's approach runs counter to the accepted approach of the storage business over decades. ... Everyone - Nimbus included - knows that real world results will be the clincher, but immediate product availability means we are close to getting those, and if the S-class results are even close to its promises then this product is going to garner a great deal of favorable and amazed attention."