Nimbus Data Unveils the World's Highest Capacity QLC Flash SSD and the World's First QLC Flash SAS SSD for the Enterprise

[AleksandarK]

Nimbus Data, a leading innovator in flash memory storage, today unveiled ExaDrive NL, the world's highest capacity QLC flash SSD and the industry's first QLC flash SAS SSD for enterprise workloads. With industry-leading capacity up to 64 TB in a single SSD, ExaDrive NL helps organizations eliminate server sprawl, reduce software licensing costs, improve efficiency, and reduce data center operating costs by up to 75%.

"Customers are always looking for more capacity and more efficient ways to access their data," said Jeff Janukowicz, Research Vice President, IDC. "High capacity QLC flash SSDs, like Nimbus Data's ExaDrive NL, help organizations migrate to enterprise-grade flash storage as cost-effectively as possible, while simplifying hybrid storage that blends HDDs and SSDs seamlessly to optimize cost and performance for their workloads."



Accelerate and Scale While Reducing OpEx and Maximizing Existing Investments
By replacing hard drives with ExaDrive NL series SSDs, organizations can increase storage capacity by 4x, improve data access times by over 100x, and reduce power per terabyte by 75%. Available in a 3.5 inch form factor just like enterprise hard drives, ExaDrive NL is plug-and-play compatible with virtually any 3.5 inch HDD slot. While existing QLC SSDs cannot match the capacity of the latest hard drives, ExaDrive NL is available in 16 TB, 32 TB, and 64 TB sizes, easily eclipsing all HDDs and QLC SSDs on the market. This makes transitioning to flash more affordable than ever before, enabling organizations to increase capacity and reduce OpEx while preserving their existing servers, racks, power, and cooling equipment.

"Celestica's storage systems provide the industry-leading density that cloud providers and enterprises demand," stated Todd Beaudoin, GM, Hardware Platform Solutions at Celestica. "By combining Nimbus Data's ExaDrive NL series SSDs with Celestica's storage systems, customers can dramatically increase storage capacity, scalability, and performance, all while reducing power per terabyte to contain data center OpEx."

Enterprise-grade High Availability and Hybrid Storage Support
ExaDrive NL supports both SATA and dual-port SAS interfaces. ExaDrive NL is the first QLC flash SSD to offer the proven SAS interface, providing compatibility with high-density enterprise servers, JBODs, and dual-controller storage arrays that require high availability for mission-critical applications. Unlike NVMe SSDs, ExaDrive NL simplifies tiered and hybrid storage by allowing users to mix hard drives and SSDs in the same enclosure effortlessly. ExaDrive NL can be paired with hardware RAID controllers from Broadcom, Microchip, and others to increase redundancy and performance even further. ExaDrive NL is qualified with servers from major vendors, including Dell EMC, HPE, Lenovo, Cisco, and Supermicro.

Massive Capacity for Edge Storage with Unmatched Portability
As more data is created at the edge, organizations are also facing a new challenge: storing and transporting massive data sets. Hard drives are ill-suited to this task due to slow performance and vibration sensitivity, and NVMe SSDs require too much power and do not provide enough storage capacity. ExaDrive NL offers the capacity of a full data storage array in a device small enough to fit in your back pocket. ExaDrive NL weighs less than one pound, reducing weight per terabyte by 95% compared to bulky hard drive-based systems. Its small form factor and resiliency make ExaDrive NL well-suited to autonomous vehicles, aircraft, mobile systems, 5G infrastructure, e-discovery, and cloud data transport appliances.

"By combining QLC flash with Nimbus Data's patent-pending architecture, ExaDrive NL offers enterprise-grade reliability, record-setting capacity, balanced performance, and incredible portability," stated Thomas Isakovich, CEO and founder of Nimbus Data. "ExaDrive NL delivers the capacity and value to effectively replace hard drives in environments where performance is critical but where SSDs have historically been cost-prohibitive."

Immediate Availability
ExaDrive NL is now shipping in SATA and dual-port SAS versions, in 16 TB, 32 TB, and 64 TB capacities. Customers can purchase ExaDrive NL via Nimbus Data's authorized distributors and resellers, as well as online at authorized retailers, starting under $3,000.

About Nimbus Data
Founded in 2003, Nimbus Data develops advanced flash memory solutions that power data-driven innovation. Our solutions include the Nimbus Data AFX storage operating system, ExaFlash all-flash arrays, ExaDrive solid state drives, and the ground-breaking Tectonic enterprise storage experience. Nimbus Data helps hundreds of enterprises accelerate and protect their critical data assets. To learn more, visit us at www.nimbusdata.com.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[phill]

Hoping TechPowerUp gets one for a review

 

[kayjay010101]

Also, pricing isn't too unreasonable, given the density. Average QLC price is 13¢/GB, for reference.

$2900 for 16TB, 18¢/GB
$5600 for 32TB, 17.5¢/GB
$10900 for 64TB, 17¢/GB

 

[londiste]

I wonder how does QLC flash hold up in Enterprise where this is aimed at?
Intel is probably the only/biggest manufacturer who has been shipping QLC Enterprise SSDs for a while.
Doesn't QLC endurance tend to run out pretty fast or are these only targeted and used for read-heavy stuff?

 

[silentbogo]

I wonder how does QLC flash hold up in Enterprise where this is aimed at?

That's the whole thing with these: you are limited mostly by SATA interface, so the most you can do(in case of 64TB model), it's about 0.6-0.64DWPD with continuous 24/7 writing at max speed (or about 40TB/day). With this in mind, and assuming that it has good management algorithm, you get roughly 1100 write cycles over the 5-year coverage period. That's the worst case scenario, and it's still approximately within reasonable QLC endurance numbers.

 

[ebivan]

Also, pricing isn't too unreasonable, given the density. Average QLC price is 13¢/GB, for reference.

$2900 for 16TB, 18¢/GB
$5600 for 32TB, 17.5¢/GB
$10900 for 64TB, 17¢/GB

Yeah so its only 30% nore expansive than the already overpriced QLC shit out there. Damn, QLC must not be more than 30% over magnetic, only than its really an option!

 

[kayjay010101]

Yeah so its only 30% nore expansive than the already overpriced QLC shit out there. Damn, QLC must not be more than 30% over magnetic, only than its really an option!

30% for the density (64TB of flash in a single 3.5" bay!!) is not abnormal, and actually quite low for enterprise hardware. And it being QLC does not bother me, as mentioned it being SATA limited means you literally have infinite lifetime (you can't possibly write more than the rated 0.6 DWPD per day) for a full 5 years. That's long enough for enterprise, and certainly long enough in the consumer space. If you're looking for the best $/TB, you shouldn't exactly be looking at enterprise hardware. In the enterprise world, getting things to take up as little space possible physically and need as little cooling as possible is what saves money.
For datacenters, this is an amazing product, and for those looking to have a pretty ballin' homelab/NAS, this is a cool product too. One of these 16TB modules and you've got an SSD that will never need to be upgraded for most people (most NAS SSDs aren't being written to 24/7 anyway, so they'll last way more than 5 years). At almost 3 grand, it's far from an easy purchase, but it's an investment that I'm sure some people might find to be a good one. I certainly want one for my NAS.

 

[ebivan]

Yeah, I will stick to Helium filled 12TB enterprise drives for a couple of years as they still go for 1/10 of the price...

 

[kayjay010101]

Yeah, I will stick to Helium filled 12TB drives for a couple of years as they still go for 1/10 of the price...

1/10th the price, but 1/5th the speed, thousands times less IOPS, much longer seek times, louder, hotter, and can fail at any time

But yeah, HDDs are still king of mass storage for cheap. I know, I have a lot of them... I just can't wait until SSDs are ~~1.5x as much as HDDs, so I can transition my 48TB HDD array to fully solid state.

That being said, this is a cool product to use for cache. I really want one for my unRAID server. Fill it up during the week, and then dump it to the HDDs during the weekend... Instead of needing to dump the cache every day or so like I have to now with the 3TB I have as cache.

 

[londiste]

Yeah so its only 30% nore expansive than the already overpriced QLC shit out there. Damn, QLC must not be more than 30% over magnetic, only than its really an option!

Density (3.5" HDDs top out at 18TB), no vibration, probably less heat and considerably faster. 30% more for this isn't bad at all.

Edit:
My bad. This comment is totally off

 

[ebivan]

1/10th the price, but 1/5th the speed, thousands times less IOPS, much longer seek times, louder, hotter, and can fail at any time

But yeah, HDDs are still king of mass storage for cheap. I know, I have a lot of them... I just can't wait until SSDs are ~~1.5x as much as HDDs, so I can transition my 48TB HDD array to fully solid state.

Well, even if some fail once in a while they are so much cheaper that putting a couple of redundancy drives in, doesn#t hurt my budget.

Density (3.5" HDDs top out at 18TB), no vibration, probably less heat and considerably faster. 30% more for this isn't bad at all.

its not 30% more than HDDs, its 30% more than normal (consumer) QLC drives, its still about 8x to 10x the price of regular magnetic drives. Over here Toshiba Enterprise 12 GB HDDs cost about 250€.

 

[kayjay010101]

Well, even if some fail once in a while they are so much cheaper that putting a couple of redundancy drives in, doesn#t hurt my budget.

Agreed, as I said HDDs are still better for archival and mass storage. It's just that it's exciting to see better tech get closer and closer to finally being as cheap.

its not 30% more than HDDs, its 30% more than normal (consumer) QLC drives, its still about 8x to 10x the price of regular magnetic drives. Over here Toshiba Enterprise 12 GB HDDs cost about 250€.

That's.. what I said. 30% hike (in comparison to the equivalent consumer QLC drive scaled up to match) to be able to fit 8x more than the largest consumer QLC drive (8TB) in a single 3.5" isn't bad. A lot of other enterprise solutions where density is the main focus are not measured in percent, but in times. As in, 2x more, 4x more, 8x more, etc. As mentioned, in a datacenter, density is what drives costs. Spending twice as much on the storage alone is worth it when you save a lot on operational costs (rack space, cooling, power draw.. these are the main driving factors in what a datacenter costs to operate)

 

[ExcuseMeWtf]

That's the whole thing with these: you are limited mostly by SATA interface, so the most you can do(in case of 64TB model), it's about 0.6-0.64DWPD with continuous 24/7 writing at max speed (or about 40TB/day). With this in mind, and assuming that it has good management algorithm, you get roughly 1100 write cycles over the 5-year coverage period. That's the worst case scenario, and it's still approximately within reasonable QLC endurance numbers.

Neat thinking outside the box.

Make QLC drive bigger, put it on interface that will limit performance in advance, and you get longevity out of it!

Remains to be seen how long does QLC flash actually last, but principle makes sense on paper.

 

[jixgtt]

In principle, it is still possible for a SSD to wear out even if limited by its interface. See write amplification and read disturb errors.

NVMe Zoned Namespaces Explained - Page 3

 

[lexluthermiester]

I wonder how does QLC flash hold up in Enterprise where this is aimed at?

QLC and "Enterprise" simply do not belong together. QLC is unacceptably unreliable and doesn't belong in anything needed for mission critical operations. I'm been testing QLC for my shop and the wear leveling is horrible at just over 1% per month. My employees are banned from buying it for the shop/customers except as an external storage drive solution.

Make QLC drive bigger, put it on interface that will limit performance in advance, and you get longevity out of it!

So USB 2.0 then? I'll go along with that!