Data protection in two dimensions (White Paper)

IBM FlashSystem with IBM Variable Stripe RAID delivers two dimensions of data protection.

Most enterprise all-flash storage arrays available in the marketplace today are designed using proprietary software integrated with essentially commodity hardware. This architecture is intended to reduce both the cost of the product and its time to market. A prime example of this approach is the use of commodity SSDs as the flash storage medium.

To provide enterprise-grade data protection, these products implement various RAID regimes across the SSDs to reduce the chance of data loss from a flash failure.A key liability of this system-level RAID approach to data protection is that when a single flash media failure is detected in an individual SSD, the entire SSD must be taken offline and replaced before robust data protection is re-established.

This leads to higher maintenance costs, lower system availability and times of greater vulnerability for business-critical applications.The IBM FlashSystem family of industry-leading all-flash storage arrays takes a different approach. Instead of commodity hardware and SSDs, IBM FlashSystem leverages the purpose-engineered advantages of IBM FlashCore™ technology to provide two independent dimensions of data protection. System-level RAID is implemented across all the IBM MicroLatency modules in every IBM FlashSystem array.

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Highlights

• Add a new dimension of data protection with IBM Variable Stripe RAID™
• Automatically address flash failures with no loss of data or storage capacity
• Eliminate the data protection, perfor-mance and resource utilization inefficiencies caused by commodity solid-state drives (SSDs)
• Increase the granularity of flash monitoring, management and provision-ing down to the individual flash block level and below
• Maximise utilisation of flash storage resources