HPE trots out benchmark blaster flash array as PCs become distant memory

An all-flash 3PAR array has stormed to the top of the SPC-2 benchmark charts. Nice one HPE, you've timed it just right for your independence from PCs and printers.

The 3PAR 20850 scored 62,844 aggregate MB/sec, topping EMC’s VMAX 400K and its 55,643.78 MB/sec.

This benchmark measure array performance in terms of throughput (MB/sec) and (discounted) price/performance with an overall pair of numbers calculated from three component workloads; large file processing, large database query, and video-on-demand.

HP’s 8-controller node array used mirrored flash, providing 28.86TB of addressable capacity, from 144 480GB SSDs in 24 drive enclosures. There was an embedded Brocade16Gbit/s Fibre Channel switch used for incoming array access requests. The total list price was $3.2m, discounted to $1.25m.

We’ve charted various SPC-2 array scores, with price/performance on the vertical axis and throughput on the horizontal one. Generally, arrays that are located lower and to the right have better SPC-2 scores. We should point out that this is also a history chart as arrays that are positioned higher and to the left tend to be older ones, and may not even be available any more.

Click to enjoy a larger view of the chart

Having said that, we can see from the chart that the 3PAR 20850 has far exceeded the scores of Kaminario’s all-flash K2 v4 (33,474.93 MB/sec) and also Oracle’s ZS4-4 (31,486.23 MB/sec). Read an HP blog brag about this SPC-2 result here. HP is now king of the SPC-2 jungle. ®