Texas Memory Systems debuts high availability Flash storage array

Texas Memory Systems has introduced a Flash-based storage array with high availability features, making it suitable for enterprise customers looking to accelerate multiple mission-critical applications.

Announced today, the RamSan-720 introduces a new architecture for Texas Memory Systems, with redundant Raid controllers, power supplies and interfaces among other features, eliminating any single point of failure.

At the same time, the 1U rack-mount device offers 6TB or 12TB of high-speed Flash SSD storage capable of 400,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS) with a latency of less than 100 microseconds, making it a complete Tier 0 storage appliance, the company said.

Until now, high-availability was not supported at the hardware level in SSD storage arrays, so customers have been reluctant to run more than a single application on one, according to Erik Eyberg, Senior Analyst at Texas Memory Systems.

"We provide hardware-based high availability in the box instead of having to support high availability at the application level, so now we can facilitate running multiple mission-critical applications on a single RamSan," he said.

This means that the new array is attractive not just to customers running applications like Oracle databases, but also those where software-based high availability is not as well developed, such as in virtualised environments.

The RamSan-720 boasts four levels of data correction, according to Eyberg. As well as the chip-level ECC correction, each of the memory modules operates Raid 5 protection across the Flash chips it controls. On top of this, the RamSan operates a Raid 5 scheme across all the memory modules, while the system has dual Raid controllers.

This redundancy is echoed with multiple management controllers and power supplies, while there are also batteries within the system so that it can shut down gracefully if the mains power is suddenly cut, according to Eyberg

"We're not aware of any competitors offering this level of protection in the industry today," he said.

Despite all this, a fully populated RamSan-720 consumes just 300-400W of power, Eyberg claimed.

For host connectivity, the appliance can be configured with two adapters, each offering dual 8Gbit/s Fibre Channel ports or dual QDR Infiniband ports.

Because of the new architecture, the RamSan-720 is not available in increments of 1TB, as most other Texas Memory Systems storage arrays are, but can only be configured with 6TB or 12TB, Eyberg explained.

Pricing for Flash storage does not come cheap, however, with the new appliance priced at £80,358 for a 6TB unit and £160,716 for 12TB. However, many organisations may only need a single RamSan-720 for their entire datacentre.