Software to Improve
Flash and SMR Performance
WildFire Storage developes software to manage Flash
and SMR mass storage. Our software implements
"fine grained block translation." This enables a level
of performance, endurance, and efficiency not possible
with traditional drives and arrays. We call this
"Enterprise Storage Stack" or ESS.
Focussed on "Linear Writes." ESS
transforms the random and chaotic write workload of your
users and applications into a perfect linear write workload.
This workload is just more efficient at every level of the
storage stack, from the individual SSD to RAID to File
Systems.
Built on "Atomic Updates."
ESS implements a novel atomic update structure which is far
more efficient than other approaches. The patented ESS
"atomic update" technique writes data to media with near
100% efficiency.
Data is "Safe:" The ESS update
engine guarantees data consistency even if the drives do
things that are unpleasant. Drives sometimes re-order
writes. ESS catches these and ensures that you
have valid, chronologically intact data, even if the
hardware does something else.
Data is "Validated": The ESS engine
always validates important control data to insure data
consistency. It can also validate every block
end-to-end if desired.
Arrays are "Efficient": Because
ESS can control writes to use exact alignment, parity-based
RAID is 100% efficient. There are no read/modify/write
operations to update. There are no "write holes" to
plug. 100% of the linear bandwidth of member SSDs is used to
store actual live data.
Servers don't get "Hammered":
Random writes with traditional SSD arrays generate huge
workloads on the host. ESS lowers the host overhead so
that both ESS and your applications run faster.
Space is "Precious": the storage
devices store packed, dense data. This gives you more
available storage with less hardware.
Storage demands can "Decrease". By
deploying techniques such as parity RAID instead of mirroring, thin provisioning, full support
of trim/discard, and fine-grained block-level compression,
your storage hardware needs can actually go down.
Storage life is "Lengthened": ESS
and its linear write engine lowers NAND Flash wear. In
combination with array effects, the effective life of your
drives can be 10x longer, or more.
Performance is "Optimized":
>10GB/sec writes and >2,000,000 4KB random write IOPS are
possible with 24 SATA SSDs, RAID-6. The same array without ESS is 10x slower and writes with
100x fewer IOPS.
Cost is "Minimized": storage
hardware costs can be cut by using fewer SSDs and safely
using lower-cost drives.
Block stack or full "Appliance":
WildFire-Storage can supply you with everything from the
block-level driver to a full turn-key SAN appliance.
We work with our licensees to optimize value.
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