MySpace replaces disks with flash
Fusion-io friends social networking site
SaaS data loss: The problem you didn’t know you had
Social networking site MySpace has replaced traditional server/direct-attach disk combos with flash memory cached servers to save space, energy, cooling and cost.
MySpace originally used multiple racks of 2U rackmount servers, with ten to twelve directly-attached 15,000rpm hard drives. They've been ripped-and-replaced with fewer racks holding 1U servers fitted with Fusion-io's ioDrive flash memory accelerator cards.
The ioDrives use less than 1 per cent of the electricity needed by the replaced hard drives. MySpace now uses less floor space for its servers, less electricity to power and cool them, and expects them to be more reliable as they'll no longer suffer HDD failures. It makes MySpace a greener data centre operator.
Richard Buckingham, technical operations VP for MySpace, said: “In the last 20 years, disk storage hasn’t kept pace with other innovations in IT, and right now we’re on the cusp of a dramatic change with flash technologies."
He added that MySpace had looked at a number of alternative flash configurations, including RAID'ed ones, before settling on the ioDrives ®
COMMENTS
How?
How do they measure MTBF to be longer than a product has been in existence?
Whilst it might be a statement of a company's confidence, which is more accurately measured by the warranty offerred, anyway, I can't see that it is really much more than a guess.
Failures..
Kinda depends how you use the drives.
If you stick them in a huge array in a SAN we found they tend to get eaten and fail very quickly, we literally couldn't change the drives fast enough in testing.
In a traditional server with 1 or 2 drives in a rack they should last a long time, and give good performance - in theory. Also will reduce cooling costs.
Revenue? Cough...
Now where are they getting the revenue to pay for this is a completely different matter. Welcome to Web 2.0 - the return of the jolly dot.bomb
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
