Before buzzwords like “cloud” and “software-defined storage” (SDS) became part of our everyday vocabulary, software developers like Boyan Ivanov, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of StorPool Storage, already were hard at work devising ways to build extremely fast, reliable, and scalable storage solutions for public and private use cases. While the solution may not have had a fancy moniker, it aims to re-energize block storage, combining high-end storage area network (SAN) technology through software and the performance of local solid-state drive (SSD) storage.
Boyan Krosnov presents at Storage Field Day 18
Demand for Change in a “Flash”
At the end of 2011, the need for high-performance scalable software solutions was in demand from banks and hosting companies. The available solutions were not easily scalable and were difficult to manage. They needed a high-performance, low-latency solution that could be implemented on their own hardware. And they wanted something on-premises rather than in the cloud.
But the solution can’t just be about performance. It has to include a full range of enterprise storage features. And any solution must offer absolute data integrity and reliability. These companies also want help designing and integrating a solution to ensure reliability supportability.
Building a New-Age Storage Solution
Ivanov and his colleagues took to the scrum board to build the blueprint for what he calls “SDS 2.0.” This would be a solution that offered feature-rich shared storage, and could be even faster than local SSD storage. The plan included a solid foundation — On-disk format, protocol drivers, client software, fully-distributed database capabilities, scale-out and API calls — all arranged for an entire storage stack.
StorPool claims that this solution can provide 1 million I/O operations per second (“IOPS”) per node, and can scale out to 10 million IOPS for 10 nodes, with latency of 300 µS. But it’s not just about performance. StorPool is also focused on simplicity and data management. Add in end-to-end data integrity, self-healing, thin provisioning, snap-and-clone capability, QoS, and automatic backup, and the result is a hyper-converged solution that delivers a complete scalable block storage solution.
A solution that delivers all this would be ideal for service providers as well as enterprise cloud builders, including banks, telcos and SaaS companies, and can accommodate complex, global implementations. From virtual machines, big data applications, or databases in virtual machines, StorPool is working to build a solution can meet the needs of any block storage challenge.
Approaching the market from a consulting perspective, the StorPool team can provide hardware configurations for clients, ensuring their systems are fast and reliable, or offer integrated solutions through its partner network. The fully managed systems offer 24/7 support, SLAs, proactive monitoring and issue resolution.
Stephen’s Stance
As presented at Storage Field Day in February, StorPool’s team is in the business of storage—analyzing client needs, predicting industry trends, building and managing solutions and servicing systems. They presented the evolution of their approach to storage. They found a way to build upon the foundation of traditional block storage to increase performance and scalability without sacrificing the essentials of system design, data management, and all the bells and whistles you’d expect from an enterprise storage solution. StorPool is carving out place in the storage market, offering a highly-viable solution for public and private cloud builders, who demand continuous uptime, expert data management, and a high-level of reliability.
