So isn’t XtremeIO just another AFA ?

Sure you’ve heard a lot about this product in the press and no doubt the congested AFA (All Flash Array) market is really making you think do I need another EMC product but there’s a lot that makes this product a success and my key highlights in the current code should really make you sit back and ponder the value proposition in your datacenter….

The market is rife with vendors pitching their spin on all flash arrays. I’m not here to preach but more to inform you why XtremeIO has been so successful over the past few years achieving over $1 billion in revenue for EMC.

IT’S THE SECRET SAUCE !!

Simply put, XIOS, the software code that s embedded and runs the array is responsible for a lot of unique selling points which are primarily the data services and features that greatly enhance what is simply a bunch of flash sitting in an enclosure.

Deduplication is taken as a given these days and hardcore techies may want to turn it off. Traditional flash arrays don’t handle it like XtremeIO does which is in line and always on. This results on negligible performance impact so why would you turn it off especially as your space savings will be enormous.

Snapshots are another feature that most arrays on the market are more than capable of but the architecture used in XtremeIO mean they shouldn’t be strictly called snapshots but more like quick clones. THEY ARE INSTANT and have no performance impact utilising negligible capacity. Think of other snapshotting techniques as legacy methods and this method as simply making use of the metadata which has fingerprinted the written blocks. You can find more information here

I’m no flash expert but what I do know is that features like this make the solution great for companies wanting to deploy a storage solution with minimal tuning or concerns of performance to their applications. Coupling this with the scale out architecture so the controllers increase as you add more X-bricks (building block for XtremeIO) results in PREDICTABLE PERFORMANCE. If you have high transactional workloads then the last thing you want to worry about is 1 workload going to impact another or is 100 snapshots on an Oracle DB going to impact the database.

CURRENT CODE ENHANCEMENTS

The innovation continues and no doubt the roadmap for this product line is going to evolve. Features such as using AppSync for DBA’s to recover their own databases to a point in time and RecoverPoint integration solve the business continuity challenges that most all flash arrays don’t consider. Having the ability to integrate the product with VMware products such as SRM are great for VMware shops as this means that you can take advantage of Recoverpoint features (roll back to any point in time) which SRM does not natively offer.

WHAT NEXT ???

I’d encourage you to read up more on the EMC page here but if you really want to see and hear more about the ‘Beast’ then sign up to one of the many roadshow events happening around the world – XtremeIO World Tour.

If you have any comments please feel to drop me a line or tweet me and I’ll be happy to help…