Dan's Take

Q&A: All-Flash vs. Hybrid Storage

This provider went with a Kaminario all-flash array, and hasn't looked back.

• By Dan Kusnetzky
• 05/16/2016

As the readers of Virtualization Review know, both virtualization and cloud computing are complex subjects. There are hundreds of suppliers offering products and services; and because there are so many suppliers and products, it's increasingly difficult for IT executives to evaluate products and services.

Dan Kusnetzky: Please introduce yourself and your organization.

Meir Uziel: My name is Meir Uziel and I am the VP of Managed Services at Clarizen. I am responsible for managing Clarizen's cloud infrastructure and global operations, including four data centers in the U.S. and Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), monitored 24x7 by our service center. I also lead the global corporate IT organization to guarantee our infrastructure can support our fast-growing business.

(Clarizen provides online work collaboration and IT project management software.)

What were you doing that needed this type of technology?
Clarizen's application performance and user experience is critical for our business, particularly given our rapid growth and international expansion. Prior to using Kaminario, daily tasks like snapshots and backups took a long time and had a negative impact on the storage performance and capacity.

The Kaminario storage system provided outstanding performance improvement as we continue to scale the volume of data we need our systems to manage. We're also always upgrading the security of our systems, and this solution provided advanced secure encryption.

What products did you consider?
While searching for a solution, we considered two options: all-flash arrays and hybrid (HDD/flash). All-flash was the best option for us -- although it can be costlier per GB, it has the best performance output.

We chose the Kaminario K2 storage system over both hybrid storage solutions and other all-flash solutions, following a careful testing process among several suppliers for high performance and cost effectiveness.

Why did you select Kaminario?
We found that Kaminario provides us with the best solution, while still being cost-effective. Key benefits include:

• Storage that can provide high I/O Operations per Second (IOPS) with consistent low latency
• High throughput (MB per second) for both our physical and virtual machines
• Storage that provides non-disruptive operations
• Advanced security encryption, to satisfy customers' security requirements.

What tangible benefit have you received through the use of this technology?
The Kaminario-based solution offers a higher level of data protection, easier management and more reliability than any other storage solution we considered. Kaminario's K2 advanced data reduction technology allows us to work with a central management system and store more information using less capacity. Compared to our old disk storage, there is also a tremendous performance improvement, so we are able to offer our customers an even better user experience.

What advice would you offer others?
All-flash array storage systems can help take your product to the next level. It not only delivers a dramatic I/O performance boost, but also provides ease of use, non-disruptive system upgrades, and simplifies process automation.