Enterprise SSD Caching Eplained

The fastest PCIe-based solid-state devices can perform over a million random disk accesses per second, while the fastest rotating media disk drives can deliver around 200 random disk accesses per second. As noted in this Scientific Computing article by Rob Farber, tiered storage systems are where SSD really pays off for enterprise customers. The cachet in caching is that enterprise customers see the performance benefits of SSDs without paying for an all solid-state storage solution.

"Solid-state disk technology is the clear winner over mechanical disk technology when considering speed, reliability and power consumption. Flash memory does wear out, as it can only support a limited number of writes. Longevity is not an issue for most consumer and enterprise applications, because write leveling technology ensures that writes occur across all of the storage media. It is safe to assume that a write rate of 10 percent in a 24-hour period will not affect the cost of ownership for both consumer and enterprise customers over a period of many years. SSDs are fast enough that they press the limits of the drive interface. Current SATA disk drives support 3 Gbps interfaces. It is worth looking for SSD disks that support the newer 6 Gbps interface, as the SSD will be able to take advantage of the greater speed.

"For those who wish the ultimate in storage performance, look to PCIe interfaces that can perform over a million random disk accesses per second and move billions of bytes of data per second. In fact, many solid-state devices (both SATA and PCIe interface) are fast enough that file lookup by the CPU in the file system can be the rate-limiting step. Only expect to approach a million IO operations per second (IOPS) when performing random operations within a file."

Read the Full Story at Scientific Computing

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