An all-flash array (AFA) – is a high-performance storage system that uses only flash storage media such as SSDs and NVMe drives and does not use spinning disks. These systems are also known as Solid-State Arrays (SSA), as they solely consist of solid-state storage devices.
Businesses of all sizes are choosing AFAs and SSAs to boost their data storage access speeds and, as a result, overall IT infrastructure performance.
Reasons to use All-Flash Array
Back in the 2010s, with the introduction of SSDs, most vendors began offering all-flash storage. Initially, the prices for this new technology were exorbitant, and only larger enterprises could justify the expense to upgrade critical parts of their IT infrastructures.
As flash storage technology evolved, the cost of storage hardware began to drop, and in recent years, all-flash storage arrays have become widely accessible to small and medium businesses. Nowadays, all-flash arrays are common in IT environments of all sizes. Let’s see why they have gained such popularity.
How does AFA work?
Apart from the obvious use of high-performance SSDs and NVMe drives, modern all-flash storage arrays integrate sophisticated software (and sometimes additional hardware) components to pool all disks together for redundancy, performance, and efficient storage management.
Speaking of management, most modern all-flash arrays also come with additional monitoring and management software that helps system administrators track current resource utilization, system health, and various important metrics. This helps to avoid bottlenecks and allows admins to quickly react to technical issues and malfunctions.
Additionally, modern AFAs utilize advanced data reduction techniques, such as data deduplication and compression, to significantly improve storage efficiency. These techniques are widely used now since their impact on storage performance is no longer as severe for primary workloads as it was before with HDD-based arrays.
Furthermore, AFA vendors enhance their products with additional plug-ins and extensions that allow all-flash storage systems to quickly adapt to changing workloads and seamlessly integrate into hybrid-cloud environments, providing the always-needed flexibility.
Key Benefits of All-Flash Storage
Why settle for less when you can have the best? All-Flash Storage Arrays (AFAs) provide a variety of advantages that make them the perfect choice for most IT infrastructures. The key benefits include:
- Exceptional Performance
AFAs offer a leap in performance that’s hard to beat. Their exceptional data throughput and ultra-low access times are highly beneficial for most modern use cases, especially crucial for real-time data processing and analytics. - High Reliability
AFAs are generally more reliable than traditional HDDs because they have no moving parts, leading to lower failure rates and less downtime. Regarding the limited SSD write endurance, modern enterprise-grade flash drives have improved significantly compared to 10 years ago, to the point where this is no longer a major concern for general applications. - Reduced Physical Footprint and Improved Energy Efficiency
The physical size of all-flash arrays is smaller than traditional HDD-based systems. This results in better scalability, reduced requirements for datacenter rack space, power consumption, and cooling. - Remarkable Cost Efficiency
While saying “flash is cheap” may sound bold, today’s all-flash storage systems are very cost-effective due to groundbreaking advancements in multi-layered flash developments and additional storage optimization technologies such as deduplication and compression. While deduplication and compression are also available in HDD-based arrays, they often cannot be used for Tier 0 and Tier 1 applications due to severe impacts on storage performance. Fortunately, that’s not the case with AFAs, as they offer much more baseline performance to start with.
All-Flash Storage Use Cases
All-Flash Arrays (AFAs) are super-versatile and can be used in a wide range of scenarios. Here are some common use cases:
Virtualization
AFAs provide the much-needed performance and advanced features to support hypervisors running virtual machines and virtual desktop infrastructures (VDI). They help sustain high data throughput and minimize access latency to ensure smooth and uninterrupted operation of virtualized workloads.
Big Data and AI
Handling large datasets and running complex AI algorithms requires substantial storage performance, which AFAs can provide, making them perfect for big data and AI applications.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
Some time ago, suggesting AFAs for backup and disaster recovery might have sounded crazy. However, falling flash storage prices and the availability of various data optimization techniques have created a new era of all-flash backup and disaster recovery appliances. The fast read/write speeds of AFAs make them ideal for being the “Tier 0” in a multi-stage backup process and a perfect match for disaster recovery solutions that must ensure the lowest possible RTO (Recovery Time Objective).
StarWind and an All-Flash Hyperconvergence
The availability of all-flash storage has transformed hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), boosting performance, scalability, and efficiency to unprecedented levels. StarWind has been at the forefront of the “all-flash” HCI transformation, heavily investing in modern storage technology and protocols featured in StarWind all-flash HCI appliances, all-flash storage appliances, and all-NVMe backup and disaster recovery appliances.
StarWind’s proven recipe for success is straightforward: “All-flash-only”, a highly efficient, in-house developed software-defined storage stack, GPU-accelerated I/O, NVMe-oF over RDMA protocol, AI-powered sophisticated telemetry, and “call home” systems. This powerful combination ensures a flawless user experience, reduces IT infrastructure complexity, and eliminates the need for frequent hardware upgrades.
All-Flash, Hybrid, or HDD Storage Arrays? What to Choose and When
Choosing the right on-premises data storage solution — whether all-flash, hybrid, or traditional HDD-based arrays — is a crucial decision for businesses. You’ll need to consider multiple factors: array performance and storage capacity, ease of use and maintenance, and, especially, the types of workloads that are prominent in your IT infrastructure. Here are the pros and cons of each option:
Pros & Cons of HDD Arrays
Pros:
- Affordability
HDD arrays are generally the cheaper ones. - High storage capacity
HDD arrays offer larger storage capacities, making them ideal for archiving and backup purposes.
Cons:
- Slower performance: HDDs have the slowest read/write speeds and the highest access latency, which can be a bottleneck for performance-intensive applications.
- Mechanical failures: With moving parts, HDDs are more prone to wear and mechanical failures, leading to higher maintenance costs.
Pros & Cons of Hybrid Arrays
Pros:
- Balanced performance: Hybrid arrays combine HDDs and SSDs, balancing storage performance pretty well.
- Cost-effective: Hybrids offer better performance than pure HDD arrays at a lower cost than all-flash arrays. It is a middle-ground that’s nice to have.
Cons:
- Complex Management: Managing the different tiers of storage can be complex and requires more sophisticated management tools.
- Variable Performance: Performance can be inconsistent, as it depends on how well the data is managed between the HDD and SSD tiers.
Conclusion
When choosing between all-flash storage arrays, hybrid arrays, and HDD arrays, consider your specific needs. If you need top performance and reliability for mission-critical applications, all-flash arrays are the only way to go. For cost-sensitive applications with high storage capacity needs, HDD arrays might be more sufficient. Hybrid arrays, on the other hand, can be a good middle-ground solution, offering improved performance over HDDs without the higher cost of all-flash arrays.
