Nimbus Data

Last updated
Nimbus Data
Type Private
Industry Cloud computing
Computer data storage
Founded2003
Headquarters,
Key people
Thomas Isakovich (CEO)
Website nimbusdata.com

Nimbus Data is an American computer data storage software and systems company.

Contents

Company

Nimbus Data develops flash memory solutions. [1] Customers include eBay, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Digital River, Raytheon, Citrix Systems, Lockheed Martin, WWE, and DreamWorks. The company was rumored to have deals with Apple Inc. and Thomson Reuters. The privately held company is led by CEO and founder Thomas Isakovich. [1]

Products

In April 2010, Nimbus Data announced the S-Class system, a multi-protocol all-flash array with up to 100 TB of solid state storage supporting Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand networks. [2]

In January 2012, Nimbus Data announced the E-Class system. [3] It offers redundant controllers and up to 500 TB of solid-state storage. [4] Each controller supports the same interfaces: Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and InfiniBand. [5] Nimbus Data software detects controller and path failures, providing failover as well as online software updates and online capacity expansion. [6]

In August 2012, Nimbus Data announced the Gemini system, with an available 10-year warranty. [7] Gemini includes dual controllers for no single point of failure and non-disruptive software updates. In a 2U form factor, the Gemini array supports 48 TB of capacity, 1 million IOps, 12 GB/s, and less than 0.1 ms latency. [8] [9] Certified benchmark results of over 4,032 simultaneous virtual desktop (VDI) users has been achieved on a single Gemini system. [10]

In August 2013, Nimbus Data announced the Gemini F400 and F600 systems with increased performance of up to 2 million read IOps at less than 0.05 ms latency (4 KB block I/O rates). Nimbus Data's HALO software, embedded in its flash memory systems, handles both block storage (storage area network) and file systems (network attached storage) by supporting several protocols. [11] Data management features include thin provisioning, automatic capacity reclamation, encryption, replication, snapshots, inline deduplication, compression, and automatic self-healing capabilities. [12]

In August 2016, Nimbus Data unveiled a new all-flash array platform called ExaFlash. [13]

In August 2017, Nimbus Data launched ExaDrive, a software-defined multiprocessor SSD architecture. [14]

In March 2018, Nimbus Data launched the world's highest capacity and most energy-efficient solid state drive, the ExaDrive DC100, at 100 terabytes. [15]

In May 2020, Nimbus Data unveiled a new solid state storage-optimized operating system called AFX. Nimbus Data AFX supports over a dozen block, file, and object storage protocols on one platform, with fine-grain QoS controls to optimize storage behavior for specific workloads. [16] The company also announced a new all-flash storage array called ExaFlash One and a new support subscription program called Tectonic. [17]

In August 2020, Nimbus Data launched the ExaDrive NL series SSD, the world's highest capacity QLC flash SSD (at 64 TB), as well as the world's first QLC flash SAS SSD. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hard disk drive</span> Electro-mechanical data storage device

A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk, is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads, usually arranged on a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored and retrieved in any order. HDDs are a type of non-volatile storage, retaining stored data when powered off. Modern HDDs are typically in the form of a small rectangular box.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flash memory</span> Electronic non-volatile computer storage device

Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use the same cell design, consisting of floating gate MOSFETs. They differ at the circuit level depending on whether the state of the bit line or word lines is pulled high or low: in NAND flash, the relationship between the bit line and the word lines resembles a NAND gate; in NOR flash, it resembles a NOR gate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Digital</span> American digital storage company

Western Digital Corporation is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology products, including data storage devices, data center systems and cloud storage services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SanDisk</span> Brand of flash memory products of Western Digital

SanDisk is an American multinational computer technology corporation for flash memory products, including memory cards and readers, USB flash drives, solid-state drives, and digital audio players, manufactured and marketed by Western Digital. The original company, SanDisk Corporation was acquired by Western Digital in 2016.

The HP Storageworks XP is a computer data storage disk array sold by Hewlett Packard Enterprise using Hitachi Data Systems hardware and adding their own software to it. It's based on the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform and targeted towards enabling large scale consolidation, large database, Oracle, SAP, Exchange, and online transaction processing (OLTP) environments.

In computing, a hybrid drive is a logical or physical storage device that combines a faster storage medium such as solid-state drive (SSD) with a higher-capacity hard disk drive (HDD). The intent is adding some of the speed of SSDs to the cost-effective storage capacity of traditional HDDs. The purpose of the SSD in a hybrid drive is to act as a cache for the data stored on the HDD, improving the overall performance by keeping copies of the most frequently used data on the faster SSD drive.

A NetApp FAS is a computer storage product by NetApp running the ONTAP operating system; the terms ONTAP, AFF, ASA, FAS are often used as synonyms. "Filer" is also used as a synonym although this is not an official name. There are three types of FAS systems: Hybrid, All-Flash, and All SAN Array:

  1. NetApp proprietary custom-build hardware appliances with HDD or SSD drives called hybrid Fabric-Attached Storage
  2. NetApp proprietary custom-build hardware appliances with only SSD drives and optimized ONTAP for low latency called ALL-Flash FAS
  3. All SAN Array build on top of AFF platform, and provide only SAN-based data protocol connectivity.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid-state drive</span> Data storage device

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functions as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is also sometimes called a semiconductor storage device, a solid-state device, or a solid-state disk, even though SSDs lack the physical spinning disks and movable read–write heads used in hard disk drives (HDDs) and floppy disks. SSD also has rich internal parallelism for data processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM storage</span> Product portfolio of IBM

The IBM Storage product portfolio includes disk, flash, tape, NAS storage products, storage software and services. IBM's approach is to focus on data management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multi-level cell</span> Memory cell capable of storing more than a single bit of information

In electronics, a multi-level cell (MLC) is a memory cell capable of storing more than a single bit of information, compared to a single-level cell (SLC), which can store only one bit per memory cell. A memory cell typically consists of a single floating-gate MOSFET, thus multi-level cells reduce the number of MOSFETs required to store the same amount of data as single-level cells.

A hybrid array is a form of hierarchical storage management that combines hard disk drives (HDDs) with solid-state drives (SSDs) for I/O speed improvements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Write amplification</span> Phenomenon associated with solid state storage

Write amplification (WA) is an undesirable phenomenon associated with flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs) where the actual amount of information physically written to the storage media is a multiple of the logical amount intended to be written.

Texas Memory Systems, Inc. (TMS) was an American corporation that designed and manufactured solid-state disks (SSDs) and digital signal processors (DSPs). TMS was founded in 1978 and that same year introduced their first solid-state drive, followed by their first digital signal processor. In 2000 they introduced the RamSan line of SSDs. Based in Houston, Texas, they supply these two product categories to large enterprise and government organizations.

IBM Storwize systems were virtualizing RAID computer data storage systems with raw storage capacities up to 32 PB. Storwize is based on the same software as IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC).

Exalogic is a computer appliance made by Oracle Corporation, commercially available since 2010. It is a cluster of x86-64-servers running Oracle Linux or Solaris preinstalled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM XIV Storage System</span>

The IBM XIV Storage System was a line of cabinet-size disk storage servers. The system is a collection of modules, each of which is an independent computer with its own memory, interconnections, disk drives, and other subcomponents, laid out in a grid and connected together in parallel using either InfiniBand or Ethernet connections. Each module has an x86 CPU and runs a software platform consisting largely of a modified Linux kernel and other open source software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IBM FlashSystem</span> IBM Storage enterprise system that store data on flash memory

IBM FlashSystem is an IBM Storage enterprise system that stores data on flash memory. Unlike storage systems that use standard solid-state drives, IBM FlashSystem products incorporate custom hardware based on technology from the 2012 IBM acquisition of Texas Memory Systems.

An open-channel solid state drive is a solid-state drive which does not have a firmware Flash Translation Layer implemented on the device, but instead leaves the management of the physical solid-state storage to the computer's operating system. The Linux 4.4 kernel is an example of an operating system kernel that supports open-channel SSDs which follow the NVM Express specification. The interface used by the operating system to access open-channel solid state drives is called LightNVM.

Dell EMC XtremIO is Dell EMC’s high-volume, high-capacity all-flash enterprise storage platform. The current version is the X2 line. The XtremIO X2 storage platform is primarily designed for applications that benefit from its data reduction and copy data management capabilities. It also targets organizations with large VDI deployments.

IBM FlashCore Modules (FCM) are solid state technology computer data storage modules using PCI Express attachment and the NVMe command set. They are offered as an alternative to industry-standard 2.5" NVMe SSDs in selected arrays from the IBM FlashSystem family, with raw storage capacities of 4.8 TB, 9.6 TB, 19.2 TB and 38.4 TB. FlashCore modules support hardware self-encryption and real-time inline hardware data compression up to 115.2 TB address space, without performance impact.

References

  1. 1 2 Kerekes, Zsolt. "Nimbus Data Systems", 21 November 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  2. Raffo, David. "Nimbus Data Systems rolls out larger S-class solid-state storage platform, virtual switch", 19 July 2010. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  3. "Solid State RAID: Nimbus Data Systems". Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  4. Foskett, Stephen. "Nimbus E-Class: The First Big, Redundant, All-Flash Enterprise Array", 31 January 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  5. Mearian, Lucas. "Nimbus puts up its new all-flash array against disk arrays", 31 January 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  6. Feldman, Michael. "No Spin Zone: Nimbus Launches E Class Flash Storage", 31 January 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  7. Kovar, Joseph. "Nimbus Data Unveils High-Performance Gemini Flash Arrays With 10-Year Warranty", 20 August 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  8. Kovar, Joseph. "A Petabyte of Flash in a Rack", 20 August 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  9. Chris Mellor (August 14, 2013). "Nimbus fattens up Gemini twins with smaller flash chips: Flash arrays go faster too, leapfrog Violin in flash capacity stakes". The Register. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
  10. "IOmark Results – Brocade Nimbus 4,032 VDI Users". IOmark. September 25, 2013. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
  11. Raffo, Dave. "Data storage startups to watch: Nimbus Data Systems Inc.", 9 May 2012. Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  12. Timmerman, Arjan. "Nimbus Data Systems Sustainable Storage". Retrieved on 28 November 2012.
  13. "Nimbus Data sticks its big nodes back into AFA market with ExaFlash". 10 February 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-22.
  14. "Nimbus Data Unveils ExaDrive, Powering the Next-generation of Intelligent Multiprocessor SSDs" . Retrieved 2017-08-07.
  15. "100 TB SSD due to ship this summer from Nimbus Data". SearchStorage. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  16. "Nimbus Data touts ExaFlash One array for dense enterprise workload consolidation". BlocksAndFiles. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  17. "Nimbus Data shows off flashy OS upgrades with ExaFlash One". SearchStorage. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  18. "Nimbus Data's New ExaDrive NL: 64 TB of Enterprise Grade QLC in 3.5-inch".