IBM eXFlash with XceedIOPS SATA Offers Alternative to PCIe SSDs

We partnered with IBM and Storage Switzerland on a four-part series of articles for this prominent storage news site. The series will highlight the advantages of IBM’s eXFlash solution, in combination with SMART Storage Systems’ XceedIOPS 1.8” SATA SSDs. Commencing the lineup is an article titled, “Alternatives To PCIe SSD In Servers” which discusses benefits and limitations of PCIe solutions and the eXFlash alternative.

With an increasing need for faster I/O performance, PCIe SSD solutions have become a popular choice among enterprises, but there are limitations to PCIe solutions that are not commonly known. The limitations range from boot up time to the drive support for each operating system to the number of cards that can be supported per server.

Standard form factor SSDs are a more viable solution in many cases, since they fit the same slots as traditional hard drives, do not require special drivers, and are hot swappable.

We agree with George Crump, author and Chief Steward of Storage Switzerland, that the answer to addressing all of the above shortcomings of PCIe without sacrificing performance, availability, and capacity can be to use a densely packed solid state drive solution similar to the IBM eXFlash. In the article, Crump comes to conclusion that:

“Solid state storage promises to resolve many of the performance problems that the modern data center server faces but that resolution cannot come at the expense of increased data risk or operational overhead.”

We encourage you to take a look at this enlightening article. This is an ongoing debate within the storage industry and will continue to be in the future as more companies seek to switch to faster computing. Join us next month as we discuss Storage Switzerland’s article on a deeper look at SSD pack solutions and specifically the IBM eXFlash with SMART Storage’s XceedIOPS 1.8” SATA offering.

View and download “Alternatives To PCIe SSD in Servers” here.

-          Esther Spanjer, Director, SSD Technical Marketing, SMART Storage Systems