Volumetric Efficiency with Turbocharged EMC FAST VP

When I left school, working in motor vehicle engineering I learnt how adding a turbocharger to an engine would increase the volumetric efficiency. For example, fit a turbo charger to a 1.6ltr engine and it performs like a 2.0ltr engine – we’ve increased the volumetric efficiency. But the real advantage is when 2.0ltr performance is not required, because now we get the fuel efficiency of a smaller lump. So what we’ve got here is performance on demand, and efficiency from having a smaller engine in the first place. Why am I talking about this? Because when you think about it, intelligent storage with a bit of Flash follows the same concept – Flash turbocharges storage by increasing performance on demand.
Using optimized software with automated tiering technologies that leverage Flash/SSDs, top storage vendors such as EMC are giving us volumetric efficiency by:

• Providing a caching layer that keeps data in cache (memory) serving the hottest data.
• Adding a performance SSD tier in a multi-tiered array (turbocharger) that’s used when needed.

I call it Volumetric Efficiency, EMC’s calls it FAST VP (fully automated tiering for virtual pools). With FAST VP, storage is managed in pools consisting of different drive types including Flash SSD, together with high-performance SAS disks and high-capacity nearline (NL-SAS). Cache will deal with high I/O bursts. But during normal running, FAST VP turbocharges data blocks by intelligently moving blocks between tiers on demand. For example, highly active data will be given a boost by being moved from SAS disks to the SSD disks, and back again when activity decreases.
Just like my turbocharged engines, FAST VP results in a smaller, efficient storage footprint that requires less data center space, reduced power and less cooling. Of course, turbochargers are now fitted to most cars, trucks, trains and even ship engines. In motor vehicle technology terms it’s why we get more for less. It’s why my car can go from 0-60mph in less than 9 seconds. And it’s why I get 45mpg when not heavy footed. Yes, it’s a diesel, but performs like a petrol sports.
So, when refreshing your Enterprise storage, think Volumetric Efficiency and think how your car works. As EMC says, “A little bit of Flash goes a long way”. The picture below illustrates my point where 3 racks of traditional 15k storage has been replaced by a single turbocharged stack using FAST VP with SSD Flash tier.