Nowdays customers are very hungry of storage for every possible usage ranging from archiving/backup to file server and so on! the answer from storage vendors is to stuff more and more disks in single tray then ever!
Now, after the new 48 disks trays from different vendors (HDS, Sun, Nexan, and others have their owns) we have the latest announcement from LSI of a brand new 60 disks tray in 4U space!
TBs will be replaced soon by PBs (amazing!): 60 DISKs in 4U are 60 TB of raw space but, with next generation 2TB SATA disks, we will reach 120TB in 4U… it means 40U=1200 TB or 1,2PB in a rack!!!!
An incredible record but are we ready to receive this density in our datacenters?
Here is some thoughts about 600 disks racks:
- The power consumption of a similar rack is at least 10/12 KWatts (without considering cooling!)
- Noise, try to figure out standing behind one of this racks with 600 spindles and trays fans!
- Weight, is you floor capable to bear such a huge load for square meter?
- Safety ( 🙂 ) imagine to change a disk in the upper tray (the tray is 90 Kgs and you have to reach it at 2 meters above ground)
- Rebuild time for failed disks (even more disks but same number of paths to controllers!!!!)
- Have you planned a full implementation of tiered storage?
Probably you can think about some more issues!
Are you ready to receive 1PB box?
ES