BlueArc sets SPECmail record

Last month BlueArc announced that the company had achieved a new SPECmail record for messaging-related storage systems.

Using CommuniGate servers operating with Intel Xeon processors, BlueArc was able to store 12,500 SPECmail messages per minute, or about 208 messages per second. This is roughly equivalent to an e-mail system that supports 2.5 million users, each sending 12 e-mail messages per day – about what you’d expect for the typical consumer-oriented ISP.

So what’s the significance of this world-record system that offers storage performance several orders of magnitude greater than what the vast majority of organizations currently need from their messaging systems?

First, while this level of performance is certainly overkill for most organizations – even large ones – it’s not at all overkill for larger service providers like ISPs, network operators and others whose users generate huge volumes of e-mail each day, particularly during peak periods. For organizations that process large amounts of e-mail – such as large brokerage houses that send very large amounts of e-mail to customers each business day during a very short time window, this type of performance is relevant.

Looking further out, however, storage is increasingly becoming a key issue for messaging. Our research has found that growth in messaging storage requirements is the leading issue for messaging decision-makers, a problem that is even more critical than spam.

Our research has found that messaging storage is increasing more than 30% annually, meaning that storage issues – both in terms of quantity and performance – will become more important for messaging managers in coming years as e-mail and other messaging volumes continue to swell. Further, when VoIP systems become more widespread, storage issues will escalate as voice generates a big increase in bandwidth and storage requirements.

Bottom line, very high messaging storage performance will become increasingly relevant as messaging moves forward.