Block storage solutions is 'easier to use, lower cost and more efficient'

StorPool has unveiled the latest version of its homonymous solution, featuring upgrades such as advanced data reduction features, improved storage write operations and enhanced reporting functions. The new edition, the eight significant upgrade to the original solution, builds further on the solid foundations of StorPool’s block storage technology for public and private clouds, and brings increased performance (up to 10x on hybrid systems), seamless scalability and up to 80% lower TCO – across the IT stack.

StorPool was founded on the belief that storing data should be simpler, cheaper and more efficient than traditional offerings. Its software-defined storage solution allows public and private cloud builders to run storage and applications on the same standard x86 servers. To do so the software relies on a cluster of servers in a distributed shared nothing architecture, and all functions are performed by all the servers on an equal peer basis. The solution runs on standard, off-the-shelf servers running Linux.

The new StorPool version has been developed to streamline data storage even further. It brings space-saving features, such as TRIM and zeroes elimination, that allow the operating system to identify data blocks that are no longer in use and that can be deleted thus freeing up capacity in the storage system. Its write back cache significantly increases the performance of storage write operations on notoriously slow hard disk drives. It enables write operations to be stored in memory, immediately acknowledged by the storage system, and then flushed to the hard disk at a later stage. This feature enables StorPool to provide exceptional performance on cost-optimised storage server configurations, without a RAID controller.

Reporting and usability have also been further enhanced, with changes including simplified templates and snapshot creation, a variety of space reporting options and others, to make StorPool even more user friendly and transparent.

With CIOs crying out for flexible, scalable, cost-efficient data storage, StorPool now also offers:
· Unmatched performance: 250,000 random read IOPS and 4,200 MB/s sequential reads on just three servers
· A scale-out option: a server cluster ten times the size will have approximately ten times the performance as outlined at http://bit.ly/1JVGQUc
· Unmatched efficiency: by running storage on compute servers StorPool makes hyper-converged deployments possible and uses minimal server resources: just three CPU cores and 8GB RAM per server to achieve 250,000 random read IOPS and 4,200 MB/s sequential reads
· Converged storage and compute on the same commodity servers.

StorPool co-founder and CEO Boyan Ivanov said: “The latest version of StorPool can replace any array solution, be it based on spinning or all-flash storage; there is no more efficient or faster block-storage software alternative on the market today. Our product is superior in many respects including performance, scalability, reliability and TCO. We have proven that you can have speed, reliability and flexibility without blowing your whole IT budget. It’s our mission to give organisations the data storage technology they need, without compromising on performance, efficiency and TCO.”