How to Choose a Data Storage System for Business: Performance, Fault Tolerance, and Scalability

Let’s start by defining the basic concepts to speak the same language. A DAS (Data Storage System) is a specialized complex consisting of hardware and software designed for reliable placement of large volumes of information. Unlike ordinary servers, corporate data storage systems distribute loads, ensure high-speed access, and protect information from hardware failures.

Today, an effective data storage system acts as the foundation for a company. On it, business analytics, CRM operations, ERP platforms, and backup services are built. When local server capacities can no longer cope with the flow of information, consolidation becomes necessary. A quality data storage system automates resource distribution, relieving IT departments from routine administration.

A competent choice of data storage system is built on three essential pillars: performance, fault tolerance, and scalability. Let’s take a closer look at each.

Performance and Access Speed

Speed is measured not only by the number of input-output operations per second (IOPS) but also by latency level. Low microsecond-level latency is critical for financial transactions, Oracle or Microsoft SQL databases, and VMware virtual environments.

Fault Tolerance and Business Continuity

Corporate data storage implies an architecture without a single point of failure. Reliable solutions use duplication of controllers, power supplies, and data transmission paths, ensuring availability at a level of “five nines” or higher (99.999%).

Scalability Without Process Downtime

As businesses grow, the scalable data storage system must increase capacity and performance “on-the-fly,” without stopping critical applications and lengthy migrations.

When it comes to high-tech data storage for companies, standard All-Flash arrays often hit economic and architectural limitations. The French-American manufacturer Infinidat offered the market a fundamentally different approach by creating the flagship solution InfiniBox.

InfiniBox is a corporate-class data storage system with scalable volume up to several petabytes within a single standard 42U rack. This platform allows IT departments of organizations and cloud service providers to significantly exceed target indicators set in service level agreements (SLAs). It helps significantly reduce costs and simplify infrastructure ownership.

Innovative Neural Cache Architecture

The high efficiency of InfiniBox is based on a unique machine learning algorithm — Neural Cache. This technology analyzes all network traffic going to the system, studies the history of input/output operations, and finds correlations in access patterns. Thanks to this, Neural Cache accurately predicts future requests, pre-placing the necessary data blocks in RAM.

Since most requests are served directly from RAM, where latency is 100 times lower than flash memory, applications work faster than on traditional All-Flash arrays. For specific and highly-sensitive loads, the SSA Express technology is integrated into the system, allowing the creation of a virtual All-Flash array within the hybrid platform.

Maximum Reliability and Cyber Resilience

The unprecedented reliability of InfiniBox begins with hardware and software redundancy, where each component in the data path is duplicated according to the N+2 scheme. The proprietary InfiniRaID data placement technology ensures structural integrity and instantaneous component upgrades without stopping business processes.

Special attention is given to protection against ransomware and hacking attacks. The InfiniSafe Cyber Storage technology suite includes:

• Immutable snapshots with guaranteed recovery in less than a minute, regardless of the data volume.
• Isolated secure environments for safe intrusion analysis.
• Intelligent threat detection InfiniSafe Cyber Detection, which uses AI to check the integrity of snapshots with 99.99% accuracy. This allows for the immediate identification of the last clean copy for recovery.

Consolidating outdated equipment on a single InfiniBox platform allows companies to reduce occupied space in data centers by tenfold and decrease costs on network ports. The new generation of InfiniBox G4 is managed by the specialized InfuzeOS™ operating system and offers an architecture with three active controllers. The G4 model provides a two-fold increase in performance, while energy consumption is reduced by an average of 20% per processor core. This approach minimizes the carbon footprint, supporting the concept of “green IT”.

Thanks to the CSI (Container Storage Interface) driver, the solution seamlessly integrates with Kubernetes, ensuring continuous high-performance data access for containerized applications. For building hybrid clouds, the InfuzeOS Cloud Edition is available for public clouds AWS and Azure. Customers worldwide confirm vendor reliability: Infinidat is a six-time winner of the Gartner Peer Insights Customer’s Choice award with a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.

In conclusion, how do you select a DAS for modern business? It is necessary to evaluate the system not by the nominal cost per terabyte, but by the total cost of ownership (TCO), automation capabilities, and the level of built-in cybersecurity. The platform should easily integrate with your current software, support cloud environments, and grow with your business needs.

Infinidat’s official distributor is iIT Distribution. We provide comprehensive technical support, architectural design, consulting, and equipment supply.