Read Part 2
Quality of Service
In mission critical environments, the consistency of SSD performance is paramount. But controller tasks like garbage collection or wear-leveling operating concurrently with IO traffic can severely impact data delivery. A few vendors are starting to publish QoS measurements. Both Macro QoS (consistency of IOPS and latency at a specific queue depth and time interval) as well as Micro QoS (cumulative summary of command completions in a specific time interval based on a given workload) should be reviewed. Examples of each type of report are shown in Figure 5.
Monitoring and Management
Deploying SSDs is relatively easy. But as more SSDs are installed, having tools that can monitor health, performance and utilization from a centralized platform will save time and reduce stress.
Monitoring tools that will provide the most value will have Active Directory/LDAP integration, automated email alerts and endurance reporting, as well as the ability to perform device-specific and/or enterprise-wide functions like format, sanitize, resize and firmware updating.
Conclusion
According to IDC, 11.5 million Enterprise SSDs were shipped in calendar year 2015 which represents 7.1 Exabytes of capacity with a 32% unit volume increase compared to 2014. Clearly the technology has moved from niche to mainstream as NAND
fabrication and the products themselves have matured. While there is no expected date when SSD cost/GB pricing will match HDDs, the cost/IOP metric is rapidly being embraced for performance and latency-sensitive applications.
There are many different enterprise SSD options that span the gamut of price, performance, endurance and form factor. The contents of this paper should serve as a useful primer to help guide users in making the best decisions for SSD deployment. During the process, it is also valuable to source and reference additional materials to assist with benchmarking, application-specific implementation guides and peer case studies to stay abreast of the latest news in SSD technologies.
