back to article Skyera unveils rival-crushing 21PB-a-rack flash monster

The ex-SandForce flash controller guys turned all-flash-array-startup guys from Skyera are bringing another flashy product to market. And if the firm's claims are true, skyEagle could be a game-changer in the flash array world. The upcoming product, due to be unveiled today, will redefine how much flash you can cram on the …

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  1. Pen-y-gors

    Apart from the NSA...

    who on earth is going to need that sort of storage capacity? That's more pr0n than has been produced since the dawn of the interwebs.

    I remember when 640kb was more than enough for anyone.

    1. Beamerboy

      Re: Apart from the NSA...

      Well we could do with some more space in our racks, replacing as near as makes no odds a rack of storage with 1U is certainly an option worth exploring over extending our data centre

    2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      Re: Apart from the NSA...

      You have not seen Powerpoint presentations by Marketting departments recently have you?

      Still waiting for them to figure out I am still to cheap to buy high end projectors.

    3. Just a geek
      Happy

      Re: Apart from the NSA...

      640kb was referring to RAM, not storage.

      Anyway, provide the storage and the users will eat it :)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apart from the NSA...

      I call porn-godwin.

      Every time there is a story about storage, someone says something along the lines of "imagine how much porn you could store, hur, hur, hur."

      1. a_milan

        Re: Apart from the NSA...

        Correct, you can already store all the porn in the world in one array (in HD) - this resolves the issue of "how many streams can you run concurrently?"

    5. MrBilious

      Re: Apart from the NSA...

      You're forgetting 4k & holographic pr0n.

  2. Mtech25

    Does it have anything to do

    With Crossbar as they claim that with RRAM could fit a terabyte of information on a chip the size of a postage stamp which they claim it would replace flash memory?

    Another question is do both of these products do they whiten my teeth while i sleep?

  3. Evil Auditor Silver badge
    Trollface

    Quite impressive!

    So, one rack full of their flash will set me $42m back. How many of those do I need to store 1.6% of the daily internet traffic?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Quite impressive!

      Indeed: almost exactly $1m for a 1U device. I wonder what the insurance bill is like for that much kit :-)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    we've over 1.5PB onsite and that takes up several racks. We don't really need performance though and this thing would be out of our price range

    1. Steve Foster

      @AC 11:50

      Ok, so you don't need the performance, but how much ongoing power and environmental control savings might you make reducing your storage from "several racks" to one?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: @AC 11:50

        On the face of it that may be the case, but it's more complex than that: Do these arrays have the ability to hot swap failed modules, how many PSUs do they have, what sort of caching, multichannel FC, how many ports, do they have the advanced management of HDS/EMC/IBM arrays, snapshots, replication, etc. etc.

    2. Pen-y-gors

      Don't tell me...

      @AC 11.50

      You live in Cheltenham, like 'doughnuts', and tell all your neighbours you're just a 'clerk in the civil service'? Yes?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vaporflash

    This would be far more credible if they had actually shipped (GA) their first product, which was coincidentally announced at the Flash Memory Summit one year ago.

    Even if they shipped it now, who would buy it when 10X better is 6 months off.

    Next year about this time expect to hear about their 3rd gen product which is even better cheaper and faster and will be shipping the next year for sure this time.

    1. DJO Silver badge

      Re: Vaporflash

      Even if they shipped it now, who would buy it when 10X better is 6 months off.

      It was ever thus. Eventually you have to bite the bullet and make that purchase safe in the knowledge that if you had waited just a few more days you could get something better cheaper. Otherwise we'd all be running 286's with 5.25 floppies and not wishing to commit to a new PC because the one coming out next week will be even better than what I could get today.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Vaporflash

      Jealous? Sounds like another storage vendor saying the grapes are sour.

      Personally I think this would be revolutionary if they can accomplish this. I assume they'll have other more realistic SKUs as well for mainstream non-$_no_object deployments. Anyone from Skyera care to comment on a Sky-baby-eagle (I see additional capacity points on their website).

      Also how would flash hot swap work? Are deployments protected using mirroring? That's one of the reasons why most IT shops avoid large capacity deployments / array.

      FWIW power and cooling is going to be a big problems for most DC. At 800W / 1U, you are talking about ~30 to ~35 KW on power alone + ~20 to 40 KW on cooling for 1 rack. That's more power than what some of the high density servers use.

      PS... I don't work for Skyera

    3. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: Vaporflash

      "Even if they shipped it now, who would buy it when 10X better is 6 months off."

      Perhaps they're taking lessons from UK 1980s home micro makers.

  6. SirWired 1

    I'm skeptical

    The density, I can conceive of. But I ain't buying those IOPS numbers. That kind of IOPS takes a heck of a lot more than a little space (that you aren't using for flash chips) carved out of a single rack unit.

  7. M. B.

    Got to see the skyHawk...

    ...at Dell Enterprise Forum in San Jose, very impressive but not too many details offered. I don't recall them hosting a session, either. Scored a free pen though so they can't be all that bad, right? :)

    If I'm honest, it needs more flashy lights and front-end bling. Managers and directors love SANs because of how impressive they look, let's face it. The more impressive the SAN, the more important the data. I could show more than a few IT managers I know a cardboard cutout of a VNX and as long as the lights worked, the purchase order would be signed.

  8. Pangrayster
    Thumb Up

    skyEagle is a family

    Baby skyEagles? You bet! We will offer a skyEagle family with multiple capacity points and configurations to meet customers’ varying needs.

    Disclaimer: I work for Skyera.

  9. Odd Einar
    Paris Hilton

    42 Eagles in a rack?

    Surely some guy from PETA will come and byte you...

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