GreenBytes Launches Solid State Storage Array

GreenBytes is targeting SMBs with the launch of a flash storage array that can handle deduplication

Data storage specialist GreenBytes has launched Solidarity, a high availability (HA) solid state (SSD) storage array that is designed to meet the production storage needs of the small to medium-size business (SMB) market.

Featuring the GreenBytes GO OS (Globally Optimised Operating System) including inline real-time deduplication and compression, Solidarity packages features into a dual controller unit outfitted with SSD, offering 3.5 TB (15 TB effective) to 13.5 TB (60 TB effective) and capable of delivering 120,000 4K IOPS.

SMB Storage

Solidarity is designed to help enable the SMB market to meet all primary and transactional storage missions including virtual infrastructure (VM/VDI) and databases with a single data tier, all-solid state platform. The platform offers large virtual storage pools for single tier storage, eliminating traditional tiering and the need for tiering software processes and heuristics. Additionally, the Solidarity GO OS utilises Smart Write technology to coalesce writes and transactional/synchronous I/O.

The GreenBytes GO OS offers customers SAN (iSCSI) connectivity for integrating applications requiring high performance storage. Additionally, the StorageManager administration interface provides graphical tools and wizards to configure, provision iSCSI LUNs and file systems, and subsequent monitoring. GreenBytes Solidarity will be generally available later in Q1, the company noted in a release.

“As the SMB market continues to deploy VDI and VM projects, budget-conscious storage administrators are looking for a total solution that provides high-performance, enterprise-class features and ample capacity,” said Deni Connor, principal analyst at Storage Strategies Now. “With features including high availability and global inline deduplication and compression for replication, the GreenBytes Solidarity platform is a fresh architectural approach to an all-SSD solution and is certainly a product to watch in this growing space.”

The company offers both software-based and hardware-accelerated compression options. GreenBytes compression achieves reduction by as much as 3.6X or more and combines in real time with GreenBytes inline deduplication for greater reduction. GreenBytes offers a replication capability that provides for continuous data protection and also optimizes network utilisation by compressing and deduplicating replication data over the wire.

SSD Powered

Solidarity Smart Write technology de-amplifies writes to the array by orders of magnitude. This technology is designed to increase the service life of the equipment well beyond typical write endurance specifications of MLC SSD used for block and file storage. The Xeon-based controllers are redundant and can operate independently and are each equipped with four 1 GbE and two 10 GbE network ports. For Windows and VMware iSCSI environments, GreenBytes systems dynamically return thin provisioned blocks when they are removed from their hosted environments.

“Many SMB profile customers have diverse storage applications like large enterprises, but have neither the budget nor the staff to purchase and administer a one-of-everything solution,” said Matt Aitkenhead, vice president of sales of GreenBytes. “Solidarity provides a complete SSD-powered, single-tier solution for primary storage and virtualisation missions that removes complexity and provides orders of magnitude increases of performance and capacity, which are true game changers in the mid-market storage arena.”