Racerunner SSDs tap Exar dedupe tech

WhipTails of the unexpanded

By Chris Mellor • Get more from this author

Posted in Storage, 13th October 2009 06:02 GMT

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It had to happen: WhipTail has worked out you'll get more data in an SSD if you compress it, and the company is working with Exar to do exactky this.

WhipTail is going to integrate Exar’s Hifn BitWackr hardware deduplication and compression product into its solid state drive (SSD) appliances. With this addition of deduplication code, the appliance branding changes from WhipTail to Racerunner.

WhipTail says it is "the first SSD appliance family to offer in-line primary storage deduplication functionality." Other approaches to primary data deduplication, such as NetApp's ASIS, are recommended for the less active part of the primary data spectrum, whereas RaceRunner is for the most active part.

James Candelaria, WhipTail's chief technology officer, said RaceRunner never stores duplicated data - "unlike competitors who must scan a volume for duplicated data as a background job." He also says that the compression and dedupe facility means more raw data can be, literally, compressed into the SSD making better use of its expensive space and, in effect, lowering its price. Customers, WhipTail claims, will often experience consolidation ratios greater than 10:1, meaning the product's native capacity is, in effect, up to ten times greater in practice.

Racerunner is available in 1.5, 3 and 6TB (Racerunner 1500, Racerunner 3000 and Racerunner 6000 respectively) versions, as well as with varying levels of redundancies. Customers have the option of deduplication on a logical unit number (LUN) to LUN basis. This allows them, WhipTail says, to deduplicate and compress bulk data while still providing the highest functionality for their most performance-sensitive data.

Deduplication has the effect of reducing the amount of data written to the SSD, helping to prolong its write endurance. Deduplication bandwidth is fast. It is said to exceed 1GB/sec.

WhipTail says Racerunner "is best suited for enterprises with poorly performing databases, overtaxed virtualisation storage pools and underperforming email systems."

Racerunner appliances will begin shipping with the deduplication feature in the fourth quarter of this year. Pricing was not revealed. ®

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