June 12, 2016

No matter what department of a company, the success or failure of that department is greatly impacted by their software applications. Whether it’s an accounting software, a business application, or CRM, the technology must be able to keep pace with the needs of the team. Yet, 90% of US business-users claim that they regularly experience application delays. Half of those users experience delays three times a day or more. These delays and the performance ceiling placed on their applications is known as the app-data gap, and it is the IT department’s role to find a way to close it.

HPE Nimble Storage believes they have the answer. They call it “Predictive Flash.”

Predictive Flash with HPE Nimble Storage

All flash arrays for tier 1 storage purposes are the next generation of data center storage. Flash can increase the input/output rate of the array by 1000% compared to legacy hard disk drives, but even still, that is not enough to close the app-data gap. In addition to muscle, HPE Nimble argues that flash requires a level of intelligence.

Therefore, the Predictive Flash Platform from HPE Nimble Storage combines two key elements: the first is a cutting-edge, high-performance flash storage array, and the second is HPE Nimble’s global data analytics engine, Infosight.

High Performance Flash Storage

This year, HPE Nimble released the AF-Series All Flash Arrays— HPE Nimble’s first line to utilize an all flash infrastructure. The line boasts the same staggering performance numbers consistent with many other all flash arrays, but HPE Nimble has cited the total cost of ownership of the AF Series to be 33% – 66% lower than competitive arrays.

Flash storage achieves this impressive level of performance and costs savings in a few simple ways.

• Electrical Operation: Spinning disk requires a mechanical arm to physically scour its hard drive for the data in question. Once the data has been found, that mechanical arm must read it back to the computer. These slow physical movements hamper the overall speed of the array. In flash storage, the entire process is done electrically.

• Less Hardware: Flash, generally speaking, is more energy efficient and easier to cool than their hard disk counterparts. Many clients have been able to significantly reduce their data center footprint by converting to flash. With flash, two full data center racks can be condensed into two rack units.

Through these two primary methods, HPE Nimble is able to offer a long-term storage investment with significantly more value in two important areas.

InfoSight Predictive Analytics

As powerful as your storage array may be, downtime is downtime. HPE Nimble has created Infosight to minimize downtime and help their customers correct looming problems early.

Infosight is a sprawling cloud-based analytics hub which gathers performance data from the thousands of HPE Nimble Storage arrays deployed around the world at all hours of the day. It gathers billions of data points every few hours and analyzes this information. InfoSight can identify performance bottlenecks, foresee future needs, and even help avert problems before they happen.

• Issue Detection: If HPE Nimble Infosight discovers an upcoming issue with your system, it provides prescriptive guidance on how to correct it before it can impact your business.

• Software-as-a-Service Application: As a cloud-based application, InfoSight can be accessed at any time and from any device, giving you the flexibility to manage your storage array on your terms.

• Forecasting: InfoSight can also predict the future needs of the environment. It projects, based on current data generation, when your capacity will completely fill and provides guidance to address the situation.

A Complete Flash Storage Solution

When addressing flash storage from these two angles, HPE Nimble creates a solution that is both effective and reliable. IT environments can take advantage of HPE Nimble’s Predictive Flash platform in a number of ways. Whether through the converged infrastructure SmartStack or the new AF Series All Flash Array, Predictive Flash is designed to close the app data gap.

Check out the HPE Nimble Storage Predictive Flash Platform promotional video released by HPE Nimble:

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About Mindsight

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